Early this morning Braylon Edwards was cut by the San Francisco 49ers. I’ve never been a big fan of Edwards even dating back to his days as a Brown, but I have to feel bad for the guy. He literally just donated $10,000 to 79 college students from a deal he made with then 8th grade students back when he was a rookie. If you aren’t so sharp on your math skills that totals up to $790,000. When you think of it you probably think that’s nothing to an NFL player. Wrong. Braylon Edwards only made $1 million this season, so it looks like he basically played for nothing. Back to the point of him being cut, Edwards apparently wasn’t very thrilled about it, and he took his opinion to twitter a little under an hour ago.
Late last night Saints signal caller Drew Brees passed Dan Marino to set the NFL record for yards passing in a season, a mark that Marino held for nearly three decades. Brees set the mark with 5,087 passing yards, and still has a game left next week to add to his total.
Finally Brees is being recognized this season and it is well deserved. All year I’ve been hearing about Aaron Rodgers, rightfully so. The guy is an incredible quarterback. Brees seemed to just fly under the radar until the past couple of weeks. All the talk was about how Aaron Rodgers was by far the best QB in the league, and the hands down favorite to win the MVP award. I’m going to have to respectively disagree. I don’t see him as the unanimous choice. Brees is averaging just less than an unheard of 340 passing yards per game and has completed over 70% of his passes. Drew Brees is such a rare talent. For a guy that is only an even 6 feet tall and can put up the numbers he does is just amazing.
Rodgers has a shot to break Tom Brady’s mark of 50 passing touchdowns this season, (which I don’t think he will) but if it does happen I’m sure he will be a near lock for the MVP. Rodgers does have the overall better numbers, and his team nearly went undefeated this year so seeing him win the award would come as no surprise to many, but there are at least a few others in the discussion. Even our own Tom Brady has to be in that discussion. I know I might be in the minority here, but my vote would have to be for Brees.
It’s that time of year again… The Patriots are 11-3 and in sole possession of first place in the AFC after having clinched the AFC East last week. The question most of you are wondering is as follows: Can the Patriots make it to the Super Bowl? It looks like the Patriots should have earned themselves a first round bye and potentially home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The latter part I see to be very important.
Going to Heinz field and facing a Steelers team that isn’t depleted by injuries is not an easy task and that was proven earlier this season. That doesn’t look to be the case though. If the Patriots do meet the Steelers in the playoffs they will have to come through Foxboro and it’s a whole different atmosphere for them. Roethlisberger looks very hurt and an injury like that can keep most players out for a few weeks. The Ravens could be a tough game, but Joe Flacco looks average at best, and even the Ravens defense can get beat by a good offense as that was shown Sunday night. The Texans don’t have the passing game to really take advantage of the terrible Patriots secondary like most teams can. As far as the rest of the AFC goes there isn’t any other team in the conference that would really scare me; especially if they are coming to Gillette.
The Patriots secondary is clearly their weakness and at times has been exposed but it works into the Patriots favor that the list of potential quarterbacks they could face in the AFC playoffs are headlined by Big Ben and followed with QB’s like T.J. Yates, Joe Flacco, Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow, and Matt Hasselbeck.
Anything can happen in the NFL, but if I had to put my life savings down on a team to come out of the AFC, it would be the Pats.
The way the NBA’s salary structure works today has already lead to star free agents teaming up with each other to form their super-teams. The way I look at it is the NBA is to blame for it. The NBA needed to change this in the new collective bargaining agreement and they did not. I’m sure the players association would have been for what I am about to propose.
I am all for a salary cap, but the league should not be telling teams how to spend their allotment of cap space. There are max contracts allowed in the NBA. When LeBron James was a free agent last summer notice most of the talk was not about money, it was all about where LeBron wanted to play. A team like the Cavaliers did not have a realistic opportunity to sign LBJ. They couldn’t offer more money than any other team. The only reason LeBron would have stayed in Cleveland would have been because he was faithful to his hometown fans. We all know how important that was to him. Why would LeBron rather play for a team that can’t offer a supporting cast over a team like the Heat that had Bosh and D-Wade when money isn’t even a factor? He won’t. No one will.
The NBA players have essentially realized that they can dictate where they want to play and it continues to put their present teams in dreadful situations. Chris Paul didn’t want to go to Boston during recent trade rumors, but what if the Celtics were able to offer CP3 a $30 million per year deal? I’m not saying I would want to do that as a Celtics fan, but I’m sure the extra millions would have made him reconsider. I’m sure the Cavs would have offered LBJ anything he wanted to stay in Cleveland. Losing out on the LeBron sweepstakes ruined their franchise for the near future. Yes, as a free agent the players could still choose where they wanted to play, but assembling super-teams would come at a cost to the players. If the Cav’s were to have offered LBJ $30 million per year, and the Heat only had the cap space for $20 million, it may have changed the situation. Instead we are going to continue to have 5-8 teams in the league with a legitimate title shot, while leaving the remaining teams completely hopeless.
Fortunately no one was seriously injured in this accident but this video is just hilarious. The funniest part of this video is the guy that gets taken out, but ends up landing in the driver’s seat. What’s his first instinct? Lets kick my legs up on the front of the cart and hope for it to stop. Once his first brilliant plan failed the guy decided to gracefully barrel roll out of the cart. Wouldn’t your first instinct be to try to stop it by moving the pylon out from under the brake? Nah, screw it. I’ll just jump off and let someone else handle it. Thank god they had that well-educated guy that works at the stadium there to move the bright orange pylon out from under the brake or this really could’ve gotten ugly.
In what could be one of the best battles of the season, a few players on one side might be watching from the sideline. My guess is that Big Ben will play tonight, but with Lamarr Woodley and Troy Polamalu’s hamstring concerns, along with James Harrison being out on suspension for his hit on Colt McCoy last week, the Steelers defense might not be exactly what we are all used to. That being said, I still am not convinced the 49ers offense can make them a Super Bowl contender. The Steelers are going to have to throw the ball around tonight if they want to escape with a victory against a team that has one of the top run defenses in the NFL. I’m going to the Steelers tonight.
Former MLB Slugger, and all time home run champ Barry Bonds received his sentencing today after being convicted of obstruction of justice back in April. Bonds received a sentence of 30 days of house arrest followed by two years of probation.
I’m sure Bonds really learned his lesson this time. It must be really tough to have to live in a mansion for thirty days. Our government spent millions of our tax-paid dollars to prosecute Bonds and the end result is a millionaire gets to continue to live his luxury lifestyle from the comfort of his own home. Americans complain every day about taxes being too high, and our country being in a depression. Meanwhile our government continues the unnecessary spending just to attempt to prove a point. Imagine if we stopped the ridiculous spending like this? I’m sure the next guy that gets called to the stand will be 100% truthful in fear of paying the consequences Bonds paid.
The NFL upheld Steelers LB James Harrison’s attempt to appeal his one game suspension he received for leveling Browns QB Colt McCoy in a game last week. I’ll be the first to complain about the way the NFL has turned the Quarterback position into a position for girls, but once again Harrison took it too far. Apparently Harrison isn’t very thrilled about it and less than an hour ago he expressed his views via twitter.
“17 games,1000+ snaps, 100+ tackles, 12+sacks and 2 forces fumbles since my last incident and I get a suspension for a football play! ”
First, I want to congratulate Mr. Harrison on his two forced fumbles; very relevant to the matter. (John Abraham did that last night in one game.) Basically he is saying since he has been well behaved in the NFL for one season’s worth of games, he doesn’t deserve to get suspended when he steps out of line. A football play would have been to lower your shoulder and drive it into McCoy’s ribs for the tackle, not lead with your head and drill the defenseless QB with a helmet to helmet hit. Those are legitimate penalties and the NFL should continue to focus on those and not call a penalty when a defenders hand taps a quarterback’s helmet. I am all for a hard hit in the NFL, its part of the game, and it’s what makes the NFL what it is today. At the same time I am glad the NFL is cracking down on the guys like Harrison and Ndamukong Suh who don’t think twice about attempting to end players’ careers.
After being beaten in a game which they lead by 12 points in the 4th quarter to the rival Giants last week the Cowboys have put themselves in as close to a must-win situation as it comes. Tony Romo played great last week, and I expect that to continue against the horrendous Buc’s defense, which ranks near the bottom of the league. Dallas lost DeMarco Murray for the season, which definitely will hurt them, but Felix Jones looked good and seemed ready to carry the load on the ground. I can’t see Americas team falling again this week.
Prediction: Cowboys 30 Buccaneers 17
Sunday December 18th, 2011
Bengals @ Rams 1:00PM
Cincinnati must win to even have a slim chance at a playoff birth and this is exactly the opponent they would like to face in a must win situation. The Rams looked absolutely pathetic last week, and their overall coaching staff is partly to blame. They had six attempts from the one-yard line and it took them until the 6th time to put the ball in the hands of their only offensive star in Steven Jackson.
Prediction: Bengals 27 Rams 10
Redskins @ Giants 1:00PM
The Giants are flying high after a huge come from behind victory last week and I expect it to continue. The Redskins took the Patriots to the wire last week and their offense looked better than usual, but then again they did play the Patriots and their horrific defense.
Prediction: Giants 28 Redskins 20
Saints @ Vikings 1:00PM
This one could be very lopsided, especially if Adrian Peterson isn’t around to help the Vikings run some clock and keep the ball away from Drew Brees and the red-hot Saints offense. The Saints have played exceptionally well the past few weeks and I don’t expect this one to be too much of a struggle.
Prediction: Saints 34 Vikings 17
Packers @ Chiefs 1:00PM
Packers fans have to be happy with the way Coach McCarthy used his start players last week, even with the unfortunate injury to star receiver Greg Jennings. Expect Green Bay to score early and often to break this game open early. My bet is they will play these final three games to win them, and will pull their stars once they get a comfortable lead.
Prediction: Packers 35 Cheifs 13
Panthers @ Texans 1:00PM
I’m not predicting the upset, but I also would not be shocked if it happens. The Panthers offense has been much improved this season, but their defense just lacks the talent to be a legitimate playoff contender. I still don’t believe rookie T.J Yates will be the answer at the QB position, but its what they have and it looks like its what they will stick with. I got the Texans, but barely.
Prediction: Texans 24 Panthers 20
Seahawks @ Bears 1:00PM
The Bears look to have fallen apart this season, pretty similar to their mental collapse last week vs. Tim Tebow and the Broncos. Its astonishing that they managed to blow last weeks game and it just shows that without Jay Cutler or Matt Forte this team cannot get the job done offensively. It’s the exact opposite for the Seahawks who went from being one of the worst run offenses early in the year, to one of the best later in the season. Keep the skittles comin’ as Lynch and the Seahawks take this one.
Prediction: Seattle 20 Bears 17
Dolphins @ Bills 1:00PM
In a matchup of two teams going in opposite directions the Dolphins look to stay hot and continue their winning ways. Miami just parted ways with head coach Tony Sporano, which to me came at a weird time considering they had just started winning games, and doing so in convincing fashion.
Prediction: Dolphins 23 Bills 17
Titans @ Colts 1:00PM
The Titans aren’t exactly sure what their QB situation will look like this week, but fortunately for them they get to wing it against a winless Colts team. Expect a lot of action from Chris Johnson, which in turn will result in a Titans victory.
Prediction: Titans 24 Colts 13
Lions @ Raiders 4:05PM
Carson Palmer has struggled dramatically during his shortened season with the Raiders, and so far it looks like another terrible front office move by the Raiders, and a great move for a Bengals franchise that seems to be headed in the right direction. The Lions will get Ndamukong Suh back this week and their defense should improve from the past two weeks. This is a must win for both teams if they want a shot at a playoff berth this season.
Prediction: Lions 28 Raiders 14
Jets @ Eagles 4:15PM
The only role the Eagles have a chance to play in this season’s playoffs outcome is the spoiler role. Not exactly what they were expecting back in September. They have the talent to beat the Jets and potentially put an end to their season, its more a question of whether they will show up to play or not. I like the Eagles in this one as Andy Reid looks to hold on to any hope of coming back next season.
Prediction: Eagles 24 Jets 23
Browns @ Cardinals 4:15PM
The Cardinals are coming off an impressive victory against a great 49er team and I can’t see the Browns bringing them down. The Browns defense is much improved but their offense is just terrible and lacks any threatening weapons.
Prediction: Cardinals 20 Browns 13
Patriots @ Broncos 4:15PM
In what everyone is calling the game of the week veteran QB Tom Brady will attempt to show the nation how a real quarterback plays. Yes, I am on the Tebow bandwagon right now and I love the way the guy plays but I believe Coach Belichick can get even a defense as bad as the Patriots ready to contain Tebow. The Broncos defense has been great for the most part but they have to go up against an experience Patriots offense with many weapons. The only hope I see the Broncos having is if they can at least hold the Patriots offense in check until the so-called “Tebow Time” comes around. “Tebow Time” is going to have to be more than just a solid five to ten minutes of play in the 4th quarter this week.
Prediction: Patriots 31 Broncos 20
Ravens @ Chargers 8:20
The Chargers are clinging on to the small bit of hope they have of making the post season this year as they attempt to turn their season around and sneak in. In order for that to happen they are going to have to win out, and then hope for some more help along the way. I see their season coming to an end this week in front of a nation audience.
Prediction: Ravens 24 Chargers 21
Monday December 19, 2011
Steelers @ 49ers 8:30PM
This is shaping up to be one of the best defensive battles of the season, especially if the Steelers offense is without Big Ben. I think he toughs it out and plays this week and the Steelers stay in the hunt for the top seed in the AFC. I expect this one to be low scoring which fares well for the 49ers that need a win to keep pace with the Saints for a chance to have a first round bye in the playoffs.
There was a youth basketball tournament held last weekend in Lakeville, Minnesota. Normally this isn’t big news at all, usually just a fun time for the kids to go out and play a sport they enjoy playing. It wasn’t so much fun for Steven Wilson’s son. Mr. Wilson’s son apparently didn’t play up to his father’s expectations during the tournament, so his father let him know it. While most parents would be more of a coach like figure if they wanted to help their son, apparently Steve Wilson thought taking on a Mike Tyson-like approach would work better. According to many witnesses Steve Wilson grabbed his son with one hand and began punching the eight grader in the face numerous times. Parents at the scene had to intervene to break the fight up. Steve Wilson was arrested and released on $10,000 bail.
Wilson faces a $3,000 fine and up to 90 days in jail. The fact of the matter is, if Wilson does not have a prior record he more than likely won’t even serve jail time, which I believe is a complete joke. Unfortunately events like this happen all the time. This guy was just stupid enough to do it in public. What kind of sick individual punches his eighth grade son numerous times over a basketball game? Sounds like this guy could use a little time in the slammer, followed up by some serious anger management courses.
Boston Sports Blog 