8:07 PMGregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk reports that Vince Lombardi's life story will soon be adapted into a Broadway Play. Let's just hope Hank Williams, Jr., gets nowhere near the score.
7:57 PMJudy Battista of the New York Times on missed tackles in the NFL: "One trend most exposes how poor tackling is. According to the N.F.L., there were 81 touchdowns of 50 yards or more through Week 8, the most since 1970, great for highlight reels, a nightmare for defenses."
7:36 PMLou Holtz observing Opposite Day on ESPN set today after Navy dominated Notre Dame during 23-14 victory in South Bend today: "It was obvious Notre Dame was the better football team."
7:17 PM Here's a thought: When watching the Yankees ticker-tape parade from one of the adjacent buildings looming over the route, don't toss documents out the window that contain people's social security numbers. Or meatballs.
If this had been just about anyone else’s story, it would have been a one-paragraph obituary in small newspaper, and that would have been that. But Randy Johnson’s passing is worth noting because of how little it can take for any of us to fall, no matter how far we have climbed.
Johnson, a star quarterback for Sam Houston High in San Antonio and Texas A&I (now Texas A&M-Kingsville), was the Atlanta Falcons’ first starting quarterback, in their inaugural season of 1966. He played 10 seasons in the NFL, including stints with the Giants, Redskins and Packers, and even played one year in the World Football League. But Johnson passed away on Sept. 16 a virtual recluse, broke and living in the backyard shed of an acquaintance’s family. Read more…
So, about that Internet thing - pretty cool, huh? You can do a lot with it, I hear. You can buy records, rent videotapes, watch remastered episodes of “ALF” - in other words, you can do ANYTHING on the Internet. It’s really revolutionized the way we communicate with friends, fans, and loved ones. In short, the Internet is awesome. Of course, there’s also a dark side to the internet, especially for idiots. There are people who forget that anything you post on the internet is printed in (metaphorical!) stone, forever for everyone to see.
So if you’re cheating on your wife with a Facebook friend, like Atlanta Falcons Quinn Ojinnaka allegedly may have been, and you post little love notes on the internet, someone might end up seeing them. Like your wife. For the modern adulterer, there are many paths to choose when handling such a situation. Beating up your wife, however, is not a recommended course of action. Guess which path Ojinnaka took?
It’s no secret that last week Michael Vick was released from prison to home confinement; it seems like every major media outlet in the country rolled the completely boring footage of Vick’s entourage rolling up to his Virginia manse. With nowhere to go, you might think the nation’s most famous construction worker would have a rough time around the house with nothing to do for the next few months.
Think that no more, friends. While the world’s pre-eminent authority on everything, WIKIPEDIA, describes house arrest as a “punitive measure” meant to be an alternative to prison time, it’s hard to see what exactly is punitive about this lakeside Memorial Day BBQ held at Vick’s house in Virginia. TMZ somehow had an operative on the scene who got photo proof of Vick’s oh-so-rough life under arrest.
The rise and fall of Michael Vick has been covered in many ways by many different writers. Stories of Vick can generally be broken down into three distinct eras. Before Vick’s arrest and conviction on dogfighting charges, the stories about the Falcons QB were almost universally fawning and positive. After Vick’s arrest and up until a few months ago, the stories focused on Vick as villain and criminal - his dogfighting operation, his bankruptcy, and his life in federal prison. Recently, as Vick’s release from prison has drawn closer, the media has focused on Vick’s future: what will he do after prison? Will he ever make it back to the NFL? Will he ever pay his creditors? Will the American public ever forgive him? Will he end up a reality TV star?
Today, attorney and frequent ESPN commentator Lester Munsonblew up the accepted three-act storyline of Vick’s life with an exhaustive account of the poor decisions and impending financial disaster that preceded Vick’s public disgracing. Dogfighting or no dogfighting, Michael Vick had been on a collision course with disaster for many years and ironically, Vick’s jail sentence may end up being the very thing that saves him.
After the first two games in Boston resulted in a 1-1 series tie, the Celtics-Bulls series felt like a truly 50-50 proposition. That’s definitely no longer the case, thanks to a 107-86 Celtics blowout that often wasn’t even that close. If there were any questions whether the reigning NBA champions would mount a credible defense after they lost game one, those concerns were answered last night, starting with a handful of Paul Pierce connections as the game tipped off, and continuing with another monstrous playoff performance from point guard Rajon Rondo.
Look, there’s no debating that rookie of the year Derrick Rose is going to be one of the league’s great players. And while he’s shown flashes of an ability to control the series at times, he’s never really been able to keep up with Rondo, who is taking the “third-year leap” concept to new heights. If Denver star Chauncey Billups is the MVP of the playoffs’ first two games, Rondo has the early lead after Game 3. Playing on a sprained ankle that was bad enough to need help from two teammates to get back to the lockerroom, Rondo still scored 20 points, hitting 8 of 15 shots and dishing out six assists while corralling 11 rebounds and finishing with five steals.
It was an impressive performance, one that was only truly outdone by Pierce, who finally decided to stamp his authority on the series as a whole. The Celtics captain scored 24 points, hitting his first six shots as Boston took firm control of a series that truly seemed to be slipping away from them. Now, instead of doubts about whether they should have trailed 2-0 heading back to Chicago, the only question is why they weren’t up 2-0 themselves, considering the fact that Pierce had a chance to win Game 1 at the free throw line himself.
Things were far different for 2007’s champion in Dallas, where the Mavericks thoroughly trounded intra-state division rival San Antonio to take a commanding 2-1 lead in the teams’ first round series. The final score was 88-67, but San Antonio trailed by nearly 40 points in the first half of a game that was practically decided by the intermission report.
Dallas may not be known for defense, but the Mavs held a San Antonio team that looked positively incapable of creating its own offense to 32 percent shooting after it hit half of its shots in the first two games. The Spurs look old, they look tired and they look as if Manu Ginobili really may have been the key to all the team’s past playoff success. Without the slashing Argentine, San Antonio looks headed for an early exit, which isn’t the kind of thing that anyone is used to in South Texas, or anywhere else for that matter.
An early exit is more than Tony Gonzalez has been able to get in Kansas City in recent years, which is precisely why he wanted to be done with the Chiefs. After months of lobbying behind the scenes, the All-Pro tight end finally got his wish yesterday afternoon, landing with the Atlanta Falcons on an offense that may be evolving into one of the league’s most dynamic.
Rather than draft Oklahoma State’s Brandon Pettigrew, the Falcons somehow found a way to land one of the greatest tight ends of all time. The real story is how they landed him for only a second round pick in next year’s draft. Yes, the 2010 draft class should be significantly deeper than this year’s, but conventional wisdom still holds that a second round draft pick in the hand is worth a third round draft pick in next year’s bush. So, the Falcons essentially just landed Tony freaking Gonzalez for a third round pick.
How could Atlanta have pulled off something no one else in the league could? It’s not hard to come up with conspiracy theories, particualrly since Atlanta GM Thomas Dimitroff worked for Kansas City’s Scott Pioli in New England. Sure, familiarity doesn’t necessarily breed bargain basement deals, but if Pioli felt he had to trade Gonzalez — and if he insisted on sending him to the NFC (which he surely did) — then why not cut a little slack on a former protege?
It’s not the first time that former New England colleagues have been accused of being in cahoots with one another, and given the spread of front office talent from the league’s most successful franchise, it almost certainly won’t be the last either. The real question is whether there were actual shennanigans involved … and whether anyone can find enough proof to make those accusations stick.
Speaking of hockey, you saw how Martin Brodeur lost his head as soon as he let a shot slip past him with just 0.2 seconds left? Well, he had it back, firmly in place for Game 5, notching an amazing 23rd career playoff shutout with 44 saves in helping the Devils take control of their series with Carolina.
No sooner did the Wizards officially hire Flip Saunders than the Kings made their coaching position available, too. Really, how long should we have expected a guy named Kenny Natt to last. So, who wants to coach a really awful team? Possibly former Wizards head man Eddie Jordan. After all, he’s got that crappy team experience.
Maybe you’ve noticed that there have been empty seats at both of New York’s brand-spanking new ballparks, Citi Field and the new Yankee Stadium. Commissioner Bud Selig has noticed, too, and he may try to gently force the teams to drop ticket prices. It’s about time, isn’t it?
Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is set to be released from federal custody into the wild on July 20. This is a fact that has been reported upon again and again, and by nearly every media outlet, from ESPN to FOX NEWS and everywhere in between. Even while Vick was locked up in faraway Leavenworth, Kansas, there was a steady stream of coverage of the fallen Atlanta Falcons QB’s prison exploits and financial woes. As Vick’s release date nears, it’s a sure bet that this coverage will intensify ad nauseum, both in the sports and the mainstream media.
However, if constant SportsCenter updates and Larry King interviews won’t be enough for people to get their fix of Michael Vick news, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER has some good news. There’s a Michael Vick reality show in the works, coming soon to a ratings-hungry television network near you!
While the economy might be starting to show some signs of life, it’s still not a particularly good time to embark on any ambitious projects that might be considered unnecessary. Like, oh, I don’t know, a new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons. Arthur Blank respectfully disagrees.
Despite having a current stadium that’s only 17 years old, and toting a fanbase that jumps ship faster than Somali pirates when the team isn’t playing well, Blank thinks that it’s a good idea to build a new dome. Of course, the only reason is so that he can own most or all of the stadium his team plays in. The Georgia Dome is owned and operated by the state.
The whole thing becomes much more angering when you see what one of the sites being considered for development is.
All that fitness built up through an NFL career is finally going to do Michael Vick some good. According to the ASSOCIATED PRESS, Vick already has a construction job lined up that will begin as soon as he is released from prison.
(Michael Vick’s $750,000 per year plan.)
That’s right, a man who was the face of an NFL franchise and arguably an entire city just two years ago is now going to be standing on a jackhammer for a living, because of dogfighting and a crippling bankruptcy case that has left him with little hope of paying back the $11.1 million he owes the Falcons ($6.5 million) and a former agent ($4.6 million). Instead, the best he can hope for is 40 hours a week of hard labor, at least until the NFL agrees to reinstate him.
And it gets better. Anderson was also found with marijuana in his pocket, and the other man he was arrested with was underage. I think the Urban Dictionary is hard at work on a new definition for the Dirty Bird. Read more…
