Steelers Hire Former Chiefs HC to Become New OC

Posted on February 7, 2012 by davecouture

The Steelers have signed former Chiefs head coach Todd Haley today to become the team’s offensive coordinator. You might also remember Haley because he was the OC for the Arizona Cardinals during their miraculous playoff run in the 07’-08’ season.

Many might look at this as no big deal and if you do you are certainly mistaken. Haley is one of the top offensive minds in the league today, and having him take over an already potent Steelers offense certainly worries me as a Patriots fan. The Steelers rarely make big signings outside of the organization, but I definitely think this move will pay off. In Arizona, Haley worked with the Kurt Warner to Larry Fitz combo. He certainly has a similar combo here talent wise with the deep threat from Roethlisberger to stud receiver Mike Wallace. When this offense is at full health expect big things this year.

A Tough Article to Write

Posted on February 7, 2012 by christoph131

Listen, I hate the Lakers just as much as anyone, but this was an article that deserves to be written. Kobe Bryant, you know, that guy with 5 championship rings, has passed Shaq, you know, that guy with 4, on the all time scoring list. He is now in 5th place all-time. He now only trails Kareem, Karl Malone, Jordan, and Chamberlain. He did this in 80 less games than Shaq. However, he has been able to knock down 1,452 3-pointers in his career. Shaq has 1. He has also hit 2,000 more free throws than Shaq who is statistically one of the worst shooters of all time from the line.

“He told me when he was 18 years old that he’d go down as the greatest Laker ever, and one of the greatest players of all time. And he wasn’t lying.” – Shaq said

He truly is one of the best players to ever wear the yellow and purple, and will go down as one of the best scorers of all time. 81 points in a game? Unheard of in this day and age. Of course he averages like .2 assists per season but still. Congrats to Kobe and may you never win another championship.

A Slight Cure to the Super Bowl Hangover: Beanpot ’12

Posted on February 6, 2012 by TOB$

While all of New England feels like they got ran over by a bus, four local college hockey teams take the ice today in the first round of the Beanpot. Although nothing will fix the feelings every Patriots fan has, the Beanpot provides classic New England hockey. BU matches up against Harvard in the first game, while BC goes against Northeastern in the second game. BU took down Harvard in an overtime thriller in their only matchup this year, while BC has beaten Northeastern in all three games played this year, all by one goal a piece. I’m expecting more of the same in the Beanpot. I expect some good, close games, but I’m predicting a BC vs BU final here, going with the 1st and 2nd place teams in Hockey East. Although BC is 2nd in the Hockey East this year, they have won the last two Beanpots. Despite this, BU is the hot team heading into the tournament and is my favorite to pull through and win it.

Ladies, This Is For You

Posted on February 3, 2012 by jtulz07

Hear me out on this guys. We’re going to be adding a new segment to the site…for the ladies. Due to high demand, we’ll be running a section written by the female fan base each month, or week if we must. The opportunity presented itself and we’d love to expand our female audience. Keep in mind it’s still a work in progress, but what we came up with is this. A continuously running contest, with the grand prize of having your work published on the Boston Sports Blog. That’s a good prize, right? I mean who wants a trip for two to the Bahamas when you can be featured on the best sports blog out there?

Ladies, this is your chance to become a part of the Boston Sports Blog. To have your work forever cemented in Boston sports history. If you have something to say, then let it be heard! Submit your articles to bsb.tips@gmail.com. Remember it’s a running contest so send them in whenever! We promise to read them all and get back to you if your write up is selected to be featured. Stay tuned, our first featured female post will be up today!

MLB Playoff Expansion Hits Road Block

Posted on February 3, 2012 by TOB$

Bud Selig’s office missed the February 1st deadline to have finished a proposed schedule to send to the players association. Talks have not ended and it still looks like a decent possibility that the MLB will be able to expand to two wild card teams in both divisions, but they have encountered many more scheduling issues than anticipated. There are a ton of different issues, but long story short is they need to figure out how to fit in the extra wild card matchups in between the end of the season and start of the ALDS. The real problem comes from scheduling tiebreaker games between first place and wild cards (which becomes much more important now), rain out makeup games, and also, to do everything in compliance with TV contracts.

This is huge news for Red Sox fans. The day they announced a possible expansion of the playoff format was like Christmas day for every fan of the AL East (yes, even Orioles fans). If the MLB is unable to figure out this situation soon, it will be detrimental to the playoff hopes of each the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays. All are in position to be top teams in the MLB again, with the Blue Jays not far behind. As we all remember last year, the Red Sox failed to make the playoffs with 90 wins and the Braves failed to make the playoff on the last day with 89 wins. In the proposed situation, both would have made the playoffs. Also, this is an important proposition because it awards teams for coming in 1st place, by forcing wild card teams to use their best starters in a one game playoff, while 1st place teams get more resting time.

In other news for the Red Sox, the Nationals have agreed to a one year contract with Edwin Jackson, who was widely believed to be the best free agent pitcher left on the market. Talks look like they are winding down between the Red Sox and Roy Oswalt as well. It looks like we will be heading into spring training with Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, Clay Bucholz at the front of our rotation. The Red Sox will then have Daniel Bard, Alfredo Aceves, and an island of misfit toys duke it out and try to fill the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation.

Deadly Riot at Soccer Game in Egypt

Posted on February 2, 2012 by TOB$

Over seventy fans were pronounced dead and hundreds of other fans were injured Wednesday at a soccer game in Egypt. Apparently one of the top clubs in their league was upset and chaos ensued. Riot police failed miserably to intervene and the mess got worse and now at least 74 paid their life due to this. This is horrible and shocking news.

I know soccer games are known to get wild over in Europe and Africa, but this is ridiculous. Fans threw rocks, sticks, and chairs while storming onto the field. It was the deadliest incident at a soccer match since 1996 and definitely sets back soccer in Africa. I really don’t understand how some people think and can be that violent over a simple game.

Thoughts and prayers go out to those wounded in this tragic incident.

New Draft Record

Posted on February 1, 2012 by christoph131

There have been a record number of underclassmen who have declared for the NFL Draft this year. 65 to be exact. This is well over the record of 56 that declared for last years. One of the main reasons seems like it has to do with the new labor agreement (remember that lockout thing?). Well rookie contracts are now almost half of what they had been in previous years. This encourages these players to get into the league early, get through their rookie contracts sooner, and move on to the larger stipends that come along with their second contracts.

This basically gets rid of any incentive to remain in college to better their draft status for the following years. Hopefully they can figure this out so it does not turn into a nightmare like college basketball.

X Games Roundup

Posted on January 31, 2012 by TOB$

Since its been a couple of boring days for the Red Sox, I decided to write about the X Games over the weekend. Some of the events I was really disappointed by, but there were two things that I was glad I got to see.

Sunday in the day was a snowmobile jumping competition. The very first guy I watched (Heath Frisby) did a front flip on his snowmobile. My friends and I were in awe of how cool it was, but also how psychotic the guys must be. Then the announcers said it was the first front flip ever landed and about twenty guys celebrated for the next minute and a half. I thought it was cool and all, but not warranting all that celebration.

Sunday night was where I was really interested. Every year I make a point to watch the superpipe competition and see if anyone can push Shaun White off the gold spot in the podium. Run after run guys tried to outdo Shaun, which made the event that much better. Guys push their limits and you get to see great tricks, but the majority couldn’t complete their run without wiping out or messing up somehow…except for the flying tomato. Guy is a straight baller. Skinny pants might be a bit soft, but he always put on a show in that event and does it flawless. What I liked most was his victory lap, his last run in which he was already guaranteed gold. Instead of taking it easy (with his hurt ankle) and taking a joy ride for the fans down the pipe, Shaun pushed himself to the perfect run, getting incredible air on every jump. He was awarded the first perfect score (100) in X Games history.

vs.

Perk Posterized

Posted on January 31, 2012 by jtulz07

This is just brutal in every sense of the word. Sorry Perk.

Dirk Not Scared: Easy to Say When Your on the Sidelines

Posted on January 27, 2012 by davecouture

Apparently winning one Championship means it’s okay to slack off during the off-season and come into camp completely out of shape. That’s not true, but don’t tell Dirk Nowitzki that. I had a lot of respect for this guy until recently. He’s listed as being out the past three games with the sore knee and is expected to miss a fourth tonight. Many sources have said Dirk is simply just out of shape. For a guy that was praised so much last season for his hard work and determination he certainly isn’t living up to the hype this season.

The best thing he’s probably done all season was his play-by-play announcing from the sideline. Hmmm… the knee looked all right when he jumped out of his seat to celebrate his team’s alley-oop the other night. To top it all off; during an interview recently Dirk was quoted as saying “I haven’t seen one team in the West that I’m scared of. I really haven’t.” Really Dirk? The 15-3 Thunder doesn’t scare you? Your team is tied for sixth place in the NBA, and their star player is averaging a mere 17.5 points per game; good for 26th in the NBA. He’s also averaging 5.4 rebounds per game, which certainly isn’t going to cut it. I don’t think the Mav’s even have a chance this year to repeat. If they even want a chance though they are going to need a lot more than just Dirk’s play-by-play skills to do it.