Dolphins may go without wildcat for now (AP)
Dolphins may go without wildcat for now (AP)
The wildcat formation got an unexpected bye week in Miami. The Dolphins played the entire game without using it once in their 22-21 win over the Patriots on Sunday. The streak ended against New England, one of the teams that has had trouble stopping it in the past. Dolphins coaches have been considering what to do with the wildcat for a few weeks, after running back Ronnie Brown had a season-ending…
Penny, Cards agree on 1-yr, $7.5M deal (AP)
Brad Penny's late-season pitch seems to have paid off. Fresh from an impressive showing in the final month, Penny reached a tentative agreement with the St. Louis Cardinals on a $7.5 million, one-year contract, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press on Monday night. The deal is contingent on the Cardinals approving the results of the right-hander's physical, said the…
Sandberg to manage Iowa Cubs next year (AP)
The Chicago Cubs say Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg will manage Triple A Iowa next season. Sandberg managed the Double-A Tennessee Smokies in 2009. The 50-year-old Sandberg spent the previous two seasons managing Class A Peoria. Sandberg spent 15 season in the majors, most of those with the Chicago Cubs. Sandberg won nine Gold Gloves, was a 10-time National League All-Star and was inducted into the Hall…
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‘SNL’ can’t resist Tiger Woods jokes (AP)
‘SNL’ can’t resist Tiger Woods jokes (AP)
Tiger Woods and his marital problems proved a tempting target for “Saturday Night Live.” In a skit and multiple “Weekend Update” jokes this weekend, NBC's comedy institution took on the golfer, who has admitted to letting his family down with “transgressions” that came to light following a strange Thanksgiving weekend car accident outside his Florida home.
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Polanco, Phillies agree to 3 years, $18M (AP)
Polanco, Phillies agree to 3 years, $18M (AP)
Placido Polanco is putting aside his Gold Glove and switching positions to have a chance at winning a championship. Polanco returned to the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, agreeing to an $18 million, three-year contract. The 34-year-old free agent won Gold Gloves at second base for the Detroit Tigers in 2007 and this year, but will shift to third base, which hasn't been his primary position…
Red Sox give SS Scutaro 2-year deal (AP)
Marco Scutaro slipped on his new Red Sox jersey to pose for the cameras, then asked whether he should leave it on for the rest of the news conference. “Sure. Go for it,” Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein confirmed. You'll excuse Scutaro if he's tentative about slipping into a position that's seen little stability since 2004.
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Umenyiora on field with Giants’ 2nd unit (AP)
Umenyiora on field with Giants’ 2nd unit (AP)
The struggling New York Giants continued to tinker with their defensive line on Friday, demoting longtime starting end Osi Umenyiora and starting tackle Fred Robbins to the second unit during practice. Mathias Kiwanuka replaced Umenyiora and Chris Canty took Robbins' place on the first unit. New York has lost five of its last six games and is hoping to salvage its season going into a key NFC…
Dolphins LB Porter questionable vs. Pats (AP)
Linebacker Joey Porter has been added to the Miami Dolphins' injury report with a sore knee and is listed as questionable for Sunday's game against New England. Porter has been bothered much of the season by an injury to his right knee and hamstring. He sat out Friday's drills after practicing earlier this week.
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Thrashers win on late Afinogenov goal (AP)
Thrashers win on late Afinogenov goal (AP)
Maxim Afinogenov scored with six seconds remaining in the third period to give the Atlanta Thrashers a 4-3 win over the Florida Panthers for their fourth consecutive victory. It was the fifth straight loss for the Panthers. Afinogenov knocked in a 15-footer for his 11th goal off a pass from Nik Antropov, beating Florida goaltender Scott Clemmensen.
The 10 biggest professional football flops of the last decade
Time is running short on the last year of the ’00s, so it’s time to dive into the daunting task of ranking the NFL’s best of the decade. Best what? Best everything. We’re going with a series of top 10 lists, and if something miraculous happens between now and December 31st, well, we’ll just have to catch it at the end of 2019. 10. Ed Hochuli’s quick whistle against the Chargers. Hochuli’s mistake here was unique in that it was directly, inarguably responsible for one team beating another, and there was no one in the stadium who disagreed that the wrong call was made. There was just nothing anyone could do about it. For some reason, Ed Hochuli just decided to blow his whistle randomly. It might be higher up on the list if history didn’t right itself, with the Chargers eventually beating down the Broncos later in the season and claiming their rightful division title. 9. Everything David Boston(notes) did after 2001. Once upon a time, David Boston was about to set a new mold for the ideal NFL wide receiver. He had the frame of a chiseled defensive end, but with the height and speed of a prototypical receiver. You were particularly excited about the David Boston era if you were playing fantasy football back then. He was a genetic (or chemical) freak. But then he signed a big free agent deal with the Chargers, and David Boston turned into an oversized version of Charles Rogers(notes). He stopped producing, steroids were mentioned more than once, and Boston was rarely heard from again. 8. Janet Jackson’s halftime show (of skin). An incident that lasted less than a second currently has a Wikipedia entry of nearly 4,500 words. You don’t need me to tell you what happened, but it was a desperate and sad attempt to create buzz for her new album, and even as an act of exhibitionism, it was a complete failure. We saw just the briefest flash of breast, with the nipple covered. Basically, it was nothing you couldn’t see about 83 times in any video on MTV. That didn’t stop it from causing one of the biggest, most confusing and most frightening media uproars of the decade, though. 7. The Patriots attempt at 19-0. I don’t want to label an 18-1 season as a “flop,” but I really wanted to see history happen. Going undefeated in the modern, parity-driven NFL is regarded as so impossible that I thought it would’ve been neat to see it happen in my lifetime. The Patriots were 13-point favorites in the Super Bowl, too. It could’ve happened. It should’ve happened. Then David Tyree(notes) and his magical helmet had to go and ruin everything. 6. The Tuck Rule. What bothers me most about the Tuck Rule is that it still exists in the NFL rule books. After the disaster in the 2002 playoff game between the Patriots and the Raiders, everyone sort of assumed that the NFL would wait a bit, let the heat die down, and then quietly change the rule, but that’s never happened. As it stands now, it’s incumbent on the official to determine if a forward motion of a quarterback’s arm was an intent to pass, or if he changed his mind, attempted to tuck the ball away and just lost control of it. Nine years later, no one’s figured out a better way to do things. 5. NFL broadcast issues. The NFL Network itself is great. That they have the rights to Thursday night games, and much of the country gets shut out from watching them, is not so great. In fact, it’s inexcusable. The league’s own instrument is responsible for depriving people of their product, and on paper, that just seems like a really, really bad idea. The Sunday Ticket Package has similar issues, in that the product itself is fantastic, but the fact that’s is only available to DirecTV subscribers and costs up to $400 is borderline criminal. 4. Daniel Snyder’s tenure as Redskins owner. Snyder bought the Redskins in 1999, and since then, he’s been running the Redskins like a miniature, billionaire Matt Millen without the awesome mustache. His approach to football excellence has been to bring in the most expensive free agents, whether or not they were any good or fit the team’s scheme (on the rare occasions that they’ve had one). It’s all come to a head this season, with Snyder taking an unprecedented amount of criticism from fans and media. 3. ESPN’s unrelenting attempts to involve non-football people in their coverage of football. It started in 2000 with Dennis Miller in the Monday Night Football booth, and the reviews were mixed, but it ultimately failed. In 2003, Rush Limbaugh got a spot on ESPN Sunday Countdown, and that crashed and burned in about a week. Then Tony Kornheiser got a turn in the Monday Night booth in 2006, and everyone got a headache. If you’ve learned anything from the ’00s, ESPN, I hope it’s that you should keep entertainers separate from your football analysts. I fear that the ’10s will bring us Zac Efron, Gallagher and the little kid in “The Blind Side” as ESPN football analysts. 2. The XFL. It wasn’t an NFL flop, but it was a flop of professional football, if I can use that term loosely. Vince McMahon, professional wrestling impresario, decided to launch a football league, and with the WWE’s marketing and entertainment minds behind it, it didn’t seem like a terrible idea. And ultimately, it wasn’t doomed by any of the wacky ideas or intense focus on cheerleaders; it was doomed by awful, awful football. If you saw two touchdowns in a game, you were lucky. Television ratings for the XFL were lower than the average blood alcohol level of the viewers at home, and it died after a single year. 1. Matt Millen as Detroit General Manager. Millen became Detroit’s general manager in 2001 based on the strength of his performance as a broadcast analyst. This is a lot like hiring someone to teach music at Julliard because they once appeared on “American Idol.” We don’t have the space or the heart to go over all of Millen’s bad decisions, but the Lions went 31-97 on his watch. How they won 31 remains a mystery. Millen is back where he belongs, in the broadcast booth where he can’t hurt anyone. Comments, criticisms, omissions, and your own top ten lists are encouraged in the comments below.
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Free agents face tough market (AP)
Free agents face tough market (AP)
It's the time of year in baseball for courting and bluffing — sometimes simultaneously. Free agent signing season began Friday with teams competing for a dearth of stars and a large number of players nearing the end of their careers. With only pitcher John Lackey and outfielders Matt Holliday and Jason Bay considered elite players by most, it could be a slow signing season as teams seek to…
Habs’ Laraque suspended 5 games for hit (AP)
The NHL suspended Montreal Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque five games for a hit on Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Laraque received the suspension for an incident on Nov. 21. against the Red Wings when he collided with Kronwall resulting in a leg-on-leg, open-ice hit. The NHL said Laraque, who was assessed a minor penalty for tripping on the play, deliberately extended his knee and, through…
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Tony Gonzalez and his wife get naked for PETA
Tony Gonzalez and his wife get naked for PETA
The Atlanta Falcons were once home to maybe the least animal-friendly player in NFL history, and now they might be home to the most animal-friendly player in NFL history. Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez and his wife October are appearing nude in an anti-fur ad for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Nope. Definitely no fur there. Tony, a committed vegan, definitely believes in the cause. “We should be protecting animals, not sacrificing their lives for the sake of fashion or luxury,” says Tony Gonzalez(notes). “October and I have changed many of our habits in light of the inhumane treatment of animals that occurs not only in the fur industry but also on factory farms.” If you’d like to join Tony in his anti-fur campaign, you can yourself over to the PETA website and sign a pledge to be fur-free. I’m considering it, but I’m waiting for a smuttier series of photos. I think that might really awaken me to the cause.
Good news, Browns fans: You’re about to become the Patriots!
The debate regarding the “team of the ’00s” remains open for a while longer, but the Cleveland Browns don’t really factor into that one. Sorry if I burst any bubbles there. “Team of the ’10s,” though? Eric Mangini has some thoughts on that. He told the Boston Globe that he sees “remarkable similarities” between the 2010 Browns and the 2000 Patriots. “It was top-heavy financially, there were tough decisions that had to be made, and we didn’t have much success that first year. There are remarkable similarities between the situations.”I don’t think we won any popularity contests there. You can look at the clips. The other thing is that with the staff we had, the approach we had, we kept getting better, but it took a while. At one point in that second year, we were 1-3, but we didn’t change the approach, and then we went on a streak.”That wasn’t a function of getting hot. It was a function of two years of work. You don’t know when that moment will strike, but they’ve been rolling since.” Tough decisions to be made? No success? Not winning any popularity contests? Check, check and check. A staff that stuck to the system and kept seeing improvements in the team? Well, we’ll see. Truthfully, Mangini’s notion of the Browns right having a Patriots-like future isn’t that crazy. It’s easy to poke fun at the Browns now (which is why I enjoy it so much), but who can predict what’s going to happen from week-to-week in the NFL, let alone year-to-year? And decade-to-decade? Who knows? The London Dentists might be the team of the 2010s. Anyway, if you’re a Browns fan planning to take part in the big protest on Monday night, feel free, and I hope it makes you feel better. Keep in mind, though, that the team is trying, and someone there does have a long-term vision. Not all bad teams enjoy such luxuries.Gracias, Pro Football Talk.
Counterpoint: Pros outweighed the cons on Belichick’s 4th and 2
As Chase noted earlier in his post criticizing Bill Belichick for “The Decision,” Belichick took a beating from the media after last night’s game.Rodney Harrison(notes), who still calls the Patriots “we,” verbally put the boots to Belichick from the NBC post-game show. Tony Dungy, maybe the friendliest guy on the planet, lambasted him for it, too. Over on ESPN, Trent Dilfer(notes) absolutely murdered Belichick for the call.I’m going to respectfully disagree with Chase, Harrison, Dungy and Dilfer. I think “The Decision” was the right one.Before we start, I just want you to know that I loathe the man. I think he’s cheated, and I think he’d bite his own mother’s left leg off in exchange for a win. Or even a first down. It brings me no joy to defend Bill Belichick.The fact is, though, that the pros outweigh the cons here. Yes, he ended up giving Peyton Manning(notes) a short field, and yes, he showed “a lack of faith in his defense.” I would suggest that Peyton Manning was going to score a touchdown there, whether it was from the Patriots 28, or his own 38. Belichick knows how good Manning is, and he knows how good his defense is. If you had to put your money on one unit, would you take the Colts’ passing game, or the Patriots’ pass defense?As for showing “a lack of faith in his defense,” you can call it that if you’d like, but I prefer to call it “being realistic about the situation.” What, are we worried about hurting the defense’s feelings? Awwww. If they don’t like it, they can feel free to get better. Maybe there would be more faith in them in they didn’t give up, oh, I don’t know, just as an example … 327 yards and four touchdowns to Manning.Belichick had a chance to put the game on ice and keep the ball out of Peyton Manning’s hands. All they had to do was complete a simple little play that they’ve run successfully about 28 million times. If Kevin Faulk(notes) doesn’t bobble the pass right at the sticks, Bill Belichick is a genius this morning. I think Faulk might have gotten the first down anyway. We couldn’t find out for sure because the Patriots couldn’t challenge after having burned all their timeouts (if you want to criticize Belichick for something, I’d start there). They got burned because they couldn’t execute a play that Tom Brady(notes) and Kevin Faulk can normally execute in their sleep. At what point would you ever bet against Tom Brady being able to get a ball to Kevin Faulk for a two-yard gain?The raw statistical data backs up the decision to go for it, too. The following comes from Advanced NFL Stats, an excellent site that tracks “In-Game Win Probability” based on stats accumulated and in-game situations. Here’s what they came up with, and you can get a more detailed explanation here. WP = Win Probability.With 2:00 left and the Colts with only one timeout, a successful conversion wins the game for all practical purposes. A 4th and 2 conversion would be successful 60% of the time. Historically, in a situation with 2:00 left and needing a TD to either win or tie, teams get the TD 53% of the time from that field position. The total WP for the 4th down conversion attempt would therefore be:(0.60 * 1) + (0.40 * (1-0.53)) = 0.79 WPA punt from the 28 typically nets 38 yards, starting the Colts at their own 34. Teams historically get the TD 30% of the time in that situation. So the punt gives the Pats about a 0.70 WP.Statistically, the better decision would be to go for it, and by a good amount.At the end of the day, it was an unconventional call that’s easy to question, given how things turned out. Belichick, though, has made a hall-of-fame career and built his own legend around making decisions just like that one. That way of thinking is what makes him great. If he wasn’t willing to take those risks or do the unconventional thing, he wouldn’t be Bill Belichick, future hall of famer and NFL coaching legend. He’d be Bill Belichick, that doofus that the Browns hired once a long time ago.Even if you think it was a bad call, it was still a very Bill Belichick call, meaning that it went against the grain, defied traditional football logic and went for the jugular. Most of the time in the past, when Belichick’s made such a call, it’s worked out. Last night’s didn’t.It happens. If the Colts and Patriots happen to meet again in the playoffs, and that exact same situation comes up, it will again be the right call to go for it.
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Minnesota Lynx get 1st pick in WNBA draft (AP)
Minnesota Lynx get 1st pick in WNBA draft (AP)
The Minnesota Lynx will have the top pick in next year's WNBA draft. The Sacramento Monarchs, who finished with a league-low 12 wins this year, received the second pick in the draft lottery Thursday, followed by the Connecticut Sun, the Lynx again with the fourth pick, and the Chicago Sky. Minnesota has two lottery picks because it received New York's first-round selection in a three-team…
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CAS upholds life ban for Brazilian swimmer Gusmao (AP)
CAS upholds life ban for Brazilian swimmer Gusmao (AP)
Brazilian swimmer Rebeca Gusmao has lost her appeal of a lifetime ban for committing three doping offenses. The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Friday that swimming governing body FINA correctly ended the 25-year-old's career. Gusmao tested positive for elevated testosterone levels in 2006 and also days before the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro while the 2006 case was being…
Rocket files to have McNamee suit tossed (AP)
Lawyers for Roger Clemens filed a motion in Brooklyn federal court to dismiss a defamation lawsuit by the pitcher's former trainer, claiming statements that accused Brian McNamee of trying to shake down Clemens were not serious. Joe Roden, one of the attorneys representing Clemens, said the seven-time Cy Young award winner, lawyer Rusty Hardin and others were not serious when they questioned…
LHP Aroldis Chapman discusses defection (AP)
Aroldis Chapman simply left his room at the Domina Hotel in Rotterdam last July and went down to the lobby. The Cuban pitcher's defection during a tournament in the Netherlands lacked any of the drama a movie script writer would want. “It was pretty straightforward,” he recalled. “I just walked out of the hotel, got in the car and left.” Separated from his parents, sisters,…
