Posts about NFL

Big name WRs and RBs headline early moves as NFL free agency gets going

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It was predicted that the this year’s offseason would see many changes, especially when it came to free agency and so far it’s certainly living up to the hype. It seems that every time I look at my Twitter feed, someone from the NFL will be playing for a new team this upcoming season. Even before the free agency period began (two days ago) there were already big names making moves. Most notably were the names of wide receivers like Wes Welker and Mike Wallace joining new teams or Dwayne Bowe and Brian Hartline signing fresh deals with their current teams. Initially I was thrown back by the Patriots not being able to keep Welker, he’s a pro bowl caliber receiver and he’s going to join the Broncos. In case anyone forgot, Denver has Manning at QB and they were a couple of breaks away from meeting the Patriots in the AFC title game last season. The Patriots certainly recovered quickly, signing Danny Amendola (former Rams player) and I think it’s a great way to bounce back. Is Amendola going to put up Welker numbers? Most likely not but Brady has a knack of making all other players around him much better.

A couple of running backs that also made a splash this free agency are Reggie Bush and Rashard Mendenhall. Bush is a very interesting pick up for the Lions because last season, Detriot’s running game was practically non-existent towards the final games. It seemed like every game there was a different player in the backfield getting the most touches. Reggie Bush isn’t going to turn the Lions into a power running team(Megatron will continue to be the first option) but he does give the offense much more balance. Mendenhall is also interesting because he was very inconsistent with the Steelers, whether it was off field issues or injury situation. Maybe all Mendenhall needs is a change of scenery to get back to his old form of being a starting running back for every down.

There are still so many players left in this season’s free agency period so there’s certain to be many more changes. Take a look at that list I linked, look how many running backs are listed on there. Running backs are some of the most injury prone players on the field so teams that are looking for back ups or split carry guys will certainly be making deals. I don’t see many QBs making headlines by joining new teams but we’ve already seen starters sign big deals (Flacco) or restructure their contracts (Brady) to help out their team’s cap situation. Yes, i’m still patiently (frantically) waiting to see what the Cowboys are going to do with Tony Romo. Keep your eyes on the sports channels and refresh your Twitter feed on the regular, a big signing could happen at any moment.

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Madden reveals Old-School vs. New-School bracket to decide 25th anniversary cover

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3-12My initial thoughts when seeing that Madden was going to do a vote for their 25th anniversary cover was “Woah, Madden has been around for 25 years?!” because it doesn’t seem that long. Of course I was only a year old when the first one debuted and was only playable on those old Microsoft and Apple computers. From there it moved to console (Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo anyone) and the rest was history, as it is one of the most popular sports videos games of all time. Now I haven’t bought a version of Madden since the late 90s but I do play regularly with friends when the chance does come up. This year, in celebration of it’s 25th anniversary cover, EA sports and Madden have created an Old-School vs New-School bracket that will be decided by fan vote. It’s an interesting concept because usually the most popular athlete isn’t always the one who gets the cover.

The bracket is pretty simple, on one side you have 32 of the greatest stars in the NFL of times past and on the other you have 32 of the biggest young stars in the league. It’s evident that the NFL is trying to go young and “highlight friendly” with it’s New-School side of the bracket, for the most part. Anyone else wondering why Carson Palmer is even on the bracket? He’s going up against Adrian Peterson in the first round so there are no worries of him advancing past Purple Jesus. Also evident of this side of the bracket is that championships or postseason success isn’t a requirement, it’s mostly about young stars that are going to be around the league for a long time. There are the obvious favorites but a couple of dark horses that could seriously knock out a 1 or 2 seed include Russel Wilson (3 seed) or Arian Foster (4 seed) and Victor Cruz (11 seed) for a super dark horse.

The Old-School side of the bracket has two 49ers legends at the top seeds and it’s understandable, most people think Montana is the greatest QB and everyone has Rice as the greatest WR of all time. But will their greatest feats coming in the 80s affect their voting in the later rounds? Consider the audience for the game, lots of the younger generation of players never saw the older legends play for one second. All they know are stats and what everyone else tells them. Joe Montana is not going to lose to Jake Delhomme (what?) but who knows, running into Jerome Bettis or Marshall Faulk could prove to be tougher than people think. Ray Lewis is a 2 seed but it’s interesting how fans are going to see him fresh off his Super Bowl victory and the whole deer antler fiasco. The obvious high seed to upset the field is Barry Sanders (3 seed) but I can also see Kurt Warner (4 seed) having a loyal fan base to surprise some people. Chad Johnson (11 seed) has to be my super dark horse pick because him getting the cover would just be a great story.

I’m keeping my Cowboys glasses on the entire time that I can vote, so i’m going Troy Aikman and Dez Bryant all the way.

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What would you do with a $120 mil contract? Joe Flacco went to McDonald’s.

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Now that can be a little deceiving in that I don’t mean that he went there and spent nine-figures all at once, i’m pretty sure you’d have to buy hundreds of locations to achieve that. Joe Flacco was just a couple hours into his brand new six-year, $120.6 million deal with the Ravens and the QB was seen in the drive-thru at a local McDonald’s. What did the elite quarterback order? 10 piece McNugget meal, fries and an unsweetened ice tea. Now, i’m not a “mickey d’s” person myself, I prefer the likes of Whataburger when it comes to fast food but if the quarterback wants to eat, let him eat what he pleases. Flacco doesn’t appear to be the type of person that’s going to let a Super Bowl MVP or a shiny new contract go to his head, at least for now it doesn’t. Even though he signed the new contract, many NFL fans and experts immediately began the debate of whether or not Flacco deserves that kind of money.

When using the word “deserve” in any sort of debate or conversation, there are lots of gray areas and thus lots of different stances that can be taken. Do I think Flacco deserves that kind of money? Yes, Flacco deserves a max contract after a great playoff run that eventually led to a Super Bowl victory as much as any other top tier quarterback. Remember, there are only seven starting quarterbacks in the NFL that have a championship and it’s not easy to get on that list no matter how talented the team around the QB is. Chances are that he’s not going to see the entire amount of his contract but for now he’s received a $29 million signing bonus with another $52 million guaranteed over the life of the contract going forward. It’s almost certain that the final couple of years will be restructured to have more flexibility in spending on other players but for now Flacco deserves this max deal and should enjoy it.

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Raiders Player Desmond Bryant Up For 2013 Mugshot of the Year

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We’re a little late on this one, but have to get this bad-boy into our archives since it’s a mugshot for the ages. Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Desmond Bryant, who’s coincidentally entering the unrestricted free agent marketing a few weeks, attended Harvard on an academic scholarship after scoring a 1230 on his SAT & holding up a 4.2 GPA in high school, so who the hell says Ivy leaguers can’t party?!

The poor guy was arrested on Sunday in Miami and charged with a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief. With NFL players killing girlfriends & committing suicide, getting arrested for drinking too much is seriously a minor infraction. Let’s just hope Desmond gets some professional help before he ends up hurting himself or somebody else.

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FIFA to use goal-line technology at World Cup; should other sports follow suit?

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Even though it’s my favorite sport, I don’t cover too much soccer (feels weird saying that) or futbol, as I prefer to call it but I liked this news coming out from FIFA. This morning news came out that after a successful trial at the Cub WC in Japan last year, FIFA will be using goal line technology for the Confederations Cup this year, the World Cup in Brazil next seson and one assumes all major tournaments going forward. The program will be known as GLT (goal line technology) and here’s an ESPN article that explains the detail a bit more and the companies that have already been used and other companies that are submitting their own for consideration. For non soccer fans, one of the major reasons FIFA pushed the technology is because of a match between England and Germany last World Cup that included a very obvious goal that was missed by officials. That was an extremely rare situation but when the stage is that big, leagues must be ready to fix the situation and must have the technology ready at hand. So this news presents the question: should the NFL, MLB and even the NBA use it as an example and make changes in their leagues?

This question presents multiple scenarios for each league but I think the most obvious would be the NFL using the same type of goal line technology on scoring plays, presumably most would occur while the player is running. Not so much to do with catches, where things like two feet in and control throughout the catch matter. But how many times has a goal line play been unclear to replay cameras because of the pile of bodies? The NFL already uses tons of time to review a certain play so why not add technology that would make things go quicker and smoother? It’s about being progressive and using the technology available to make the game fair for equal teams. I don’t even want to get into how much it could benefit baseball, who seems to be living in the 80s and only uses replay to review whether or not a ball is fair/foul or if it’s a home run. Maybe some sort of touch technology that determines if a runner or a catcher touches home plate first? Seems like a those 1v1 home plate situations are just as important as a ball being fair or foul.

I’m not one to say that humans should just keep having less and less control as technology either. Human objectivity is impossible to replace but technology can help minimize the mistakes that referees make and help with calls that can’t be determined by constant replay on HD cameras. I don’t know if or when we’ll see this type of technology expand into the major sports of the US but i’m all for heading in that direction.

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Ravens defeat 49ers in a memorable Super Bowl XLVII

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Super Bowl XLVII - Baltimore Ravens v San Francisco 49ers

Now when I mean “memorable” like I did in the title, i’m talking purely from a football standpoint. Let’s set aside the abundance of non-football shenanigans that surround the big game. Most of the time during commercials I was busy checking Twitter for football related reactions so the only one I remember seeing is the “Leon Sandcastle” one but it was excellent. I didn’t see much of Beyonce (am I the only one who did a beer run?) but apparently she killed it so congratulations to her. It ended up being football heavy for me, just how I prefer it. Here’s what stood out the most for me:

A lot of people predicting the game pointed out that things would start out slow for the 49ers once again due to their inexperience and it’s pretty much exactly what happened. The Ravens looked like a veteran team with offensive firepower that had their eye on the prize. It was all Ravens the first half, led by the ELITE play of Joe Flacco (3 TDs) and all of a sudden the game looked like it was going to be a blowout in favor of the Ravens. The Ravens continued their momentum with a TD off a kickoff return and the game looked over until, well, the all mighty black out. The black out was probably the greatest time to ever be on Twitter as a sports fan.

Conspiracy theories were being tossed around during the wait. Clearly the stoppage of play was going to favor the 49ers, giving them time to take a breath and figure out what was going on while halting the momentum of the Ravens. For a while it looked like the teams had literally switched, the Niners having a furious rally to get within one score late in the 3rd quarter. The game got even closer on a Kaepernick TD halfway through the 4th and when it looked like the Niners were going to score to take the lead, the Ravens held on to force a turnover on down. The final play on the drive for the 49ers had some controversy because of an apparent hold but it’s still questionable whether or not the pass was close enough to be caught either way.

It was a game not of two halves but one of post and pre-black out. Ravens win 34-31 and the story lines among the team are plenty. Can Joe Flacco finally be labeled as “elite”? Yes, he was the best quarterback last night and the best throughout the playoffs. Now he has the hardware to back it up. I know it’s tough right now but 49ers fans shouldn’t be too down because they have a very young and talented team that will contend for a spot in the Super Bowl for a long time to come.

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Predicting the champion of Super Bowl XLVII

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After hours of watching various sports networks (NFL Network, ESPN, CBS sports) and reading more articles than I can imagine (SI, Grantland, Yahoo! Sports) it finally comes down to one final game in this NFL season. Let’s just take a moment to remember the 2012 season: from the replacement refs, to the fail mary, to AP and Peyton’s incredible comeback season, to the sensational rookies, to the Pagano speech, to the ridiculous divisional playoff round. It was an excellent season and I think it’s time to culminate it by what I think will be a great game. One thing is for sure, the Ravens and 49ers are two teams that like to overpower their opponents so expect a very physical game. Here are the match ups that I think will make the biggest impact come Sunday evening:

Can the Ravens defense get enough pressure on Kaepernick? The 49ers offensive line is among the best in the NFL, if not the best and the result is a very effective and efficient offense for the Niners. Stack the line and Kaepernick will use his fastball to find his receivers. Toss in nickle/dime packages and the Niners run a deadly pistol scheme. It’ll be interesting to see how a veteran and experienced defense like the Ravens will handle the offense after two weeks of preparation. Can the Ravens offense make the big plays downfield? If you’re going to try and exploit a certain aspect of the Niners defense, it’s going to be their secondary. The Ravens certainly have the QB (can Flacco continue to be elite?) and the weapons on offense to take advantage of a mismatch. Two x-factors that I like: back up RBs Bernard Pierce (Ravens) and LaMichael James (Niners) because I think they’re both capable of making big plays, despite not being the marquee names.

Prediction: It took me a while to try and figure out how this game will play out because I feel these teams are very evenly matched but in different manners. The Ravens are more of a “Cinderella” type story, many picking them to lose against the Broncos AND the Patriots. The 49ers are the more balanced and poised team, going down early in both playoff games but recovering very effectively. The coaching is dead even, both Harbaugh brothers are among the best in the league. It’s impossible to predict how either team will perform when it comes to special teams. I feel like the glaring mismatch comes at the line of scrimmage in favor of the 49ers. You know, the “trenches” or whatever analysts like to call that part of the team. If one team is going to dominate a certain part of the game, it’s going like the offense and defensive lines for the Niners. Sure, the Ravens are completely capable of winning this game with big plays on either side of the ball but i’m going with what’s probable as opposed to what’s possible. From head to toe, the Niners are a slightly better team.

49ers- 27 Ravens- 24

Enjoy the game, the commercials and Beyonce at halftime everyone. And as always: Go Cowboys!

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Highlights from media day at Super Bowl XLVII

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It wasn’t the craziest of media days when you compare it to some of the past but as the day went on, a couple of headlines grabbed most of the attention. Another day before the Super Bowl means another day that Ray Lewis has to grab all the attention and steal the spotlight. Does Lewis plan these “leaked reports” to come out when every single sports media outlet is waiting for a story to surface? It sounds absurd for something like this to blindside the Ravens literally 10 minutes before their turn at media day occurs but it was pretty convenient. Just a thought. By now most people know but for those that don’t, a report surfaced yesterday and Ray Lewis had been using deer antler spray to recover from his torn triceps injury that he suffered earlier this season.

What is deer antler spray? Well I did a little research and from what I can figure, it’s a little-known spray/pill that contains small amounts of deer IGF-1. Stands for Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 which is on the banned substance list for all NFL players. It sounds like a weird place to get enhancement drugs. So after this story came out, plenty of questions were asked to Lewis but he refused to acknowledge anything about the situation. That didn’t really surprise me because what’s he supposed to do, say “yeah, I cheated” right before the biggest game of year? Of course not but it still raises questions about how Lewis was able to recover so quickly and whether or not he did it in a honorable manner. The only thing we’ll get from Ray Lewis is that it’s “part of God’s plan” for him so we’ll never know. Anyone else just tired of all things Ray Lewis?

The 49ers did their media day right before the Ravens and it didn’t have as many fireworks, only Randy Moss claiming that he’s the greatest wide receiver of all time. I’m in the camp of Jerry Rice as the “GOAT” wide receiver but I think Moss could be considered as the most talented receiver of all time, never having reached his full potential because of his attitude/off-field issues. That’s a debate left for another day. Another thing that stood out for me was the abundance of reporters surrounding 49ers back up QB Alex Smith (pictured above) even though he never sat at a podium. One almost feels bad for him but also respect that he’s carried this entire situation with about as much class as any NFL team could ask for.

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