The New Orleans Saints are Super Bowl Roman numeral something something something champions
Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees celebrates with his wife and son.
Saints quarterback Drew Brees had a fantastic game, throwing 32-39 for 288 yards and 2 touchdowns. Also importantly, he had no picks. He went on to earn Super Bowl MVP for his performance.
The game looked to be going in the Colts’ favor until the opening play of the second half. The Saints began the 3rd quarter by kicking an onside kick that went off the hands of reality TV personality and Colts receiver Hank Baskett.
One of the most remarkable things about last night’s game was CBS analyst and former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms. How does this man have a job? I lost count of just how many times he said something that was completely wrong. My favorite was when the Colts were driving and Simms said that the Saints should not blitz, but instead drop an extra defensive back into pass coverage. The ball was snapped and the Saints did the complete opposite of what Sims said. They blitzed. Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning promptly threw the ball into the waiting arms of Saints’ cornerback Tracy Porter who ran the ball back 74 yards for a quick six.
Phil Simms could not have been more wrong.
All in all, it was a great Super Bowl. The only way it could have been better was if Phil Simms stayed home.
Jets head coach Rex Ryan fined $50,000 after Dolphins fans tattle on him
New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan was fined $50,000 by the team for shooting the bird to some Miami Dolphins fans at a MMA event in south Florida. Miami resident David Hildenbrand, 24, took a picture of the incident and promptly plastered it all over the Internets for the world to see.
Hildenbrand says that a couple of his friends shouted to Ryan that, “Dolphins rule, Jets suck. “ Ryan responded with, “Go fuck yourselves“, and shot them the bird.
I fail to see what the problem is. The Dolphins fans initiated the exchange with Ryan. Am I to believe the Dolphins fans were somehow offended with what Ryan said and what he did?
I doubt it.
My only problem, if I even have one, is with Hildenbrand posting the picture online. He should have known that Ryan was going to get some grief over this, grief he doesn’t deserve. He should have kept quiet about the incident. Hildenbrand and his friends evidently thought it would be fun to talk smack with the head couch of their football team’s biggest rival and the head coach decided to play along.
Big deal.
David Hildenbrand comes off looking like a tattletale. Nobody likes a snitch and that is what Hildenbrand is. He’s a snitch.
Tell me something I did not already know
The Wall Street Journal did a study that showed in the average NFL football game, the ball is actually only live for about 11 minutes. Most of the nearly three hours it takes to play a professional football game in the NFL is spent just standing around waiting for play to begin.
To be perfectly honest, I’m actually surprised it’s that much.
If you have ever watched a real football game (soccer) you will quickly realize just how much of American football is spent doing absolutely nothing. In soccer, the ball is constantly in play. Time does not stop, even for injury. The ball gets kicked out of bounds by either team and then the injured player is attended to. The officials decide how much time was spent attending to the injured player and that time is added to the end of the half or the end of the game.
In soccer, the only commercials are at halftime.
The first year I started watching the English Premiere League, I could not even watch the NFL. The thing that struck me the most was just how much time is spent in an NFL game where the coaches are shown standing on the sideline. When I watch a sporting event, I want to see competition between athletes. I don’t want to see a middle-aged white guy with a perturbed look on his face.
Pete Carroll leaves USC for the Seattle Seahawks
Like a rat leaving a sinking ship, USC football coach Pete Carroll is leaving USC for the glory of the NFL, specifically, to be the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Not only will Carroll be making a boat load of money walking the sidelines of the NFL, he is able to leave USC before the NCAA comes in with flamethrowers and wreaks havoc on the program for violations stemming from a “relationship” between Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush and wannabe agent Lloyd Lake. Supposedly Lake put Bush’s family up in a swanky house free of charge.
The NCAA has rules against stuff like that.
Even though these violations, if true, happened during Carroll’s tenure, he will be spared any of the fallout that’s almost sure to come. The coach that replaces Carroll will be the one to pay for these transgressions, mainly in a decrease in scholarships. As if replacing Pete Carroll at USC and his two national championships and winning percentage of 85.6% isn’t hard enough, any coach dumb enough to take the gig will have one arm tied behind his back because of the foolery Pete Carroll allowed to happen under his watch.
Too bad Pete Carroll doesn’t have to worry about facing any type of retribution for NCAA violations. Then again, some might say that being the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks is punishment enough. The Seahawks are a pretty sorry franchise and Carroll has shown that he’s a pretty crummy NFL head coach.
John 11:35
Photo: Deadspin
Thanks Philadelphia Eagles for making these two bozos happy. Thanks a lot.
My hatred for JaMarcus Russell knows no bounds
The Oakland Raiders held a mandatory final team meeting Monday and 7th string quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the highest paid and coincidentally, worst player on the team, was excused by coach Tom Cable for “personal reasons”.
Whatever the personal reasons were, it didn’t stop Russell from living it up in Las Vegas. The San Fransisco Chronicle is reporting that Russell was checked into The Palms and living it up Vegas style only a day after the mandatory team meeting.
If there is anyone in the world that does not deserve a Las Vegas vacation, it’s JaMarcus Russell.
Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach picked a bad time to pretend concussions aren’t real
(AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)
Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach has been suspended indefinitely. If he was a radio shock-jock, being suspended indefinitely would just be a fancy term for getting fired.
The thing that got coach Leach suspended was how he treated a player who suffered a concussion, and not just any player, the son of a former NFL player who had to retire early because of concussions. A former NFL player who is now an ESPN college football analyst who, coincidentally, feels very passionate about concussions and the proper treatment of concussions.
The Texas Tech player is wide receiver Adam James, son of Craig James.
A source close to the family said James sustained a concussion on Dec. 16, was examined on Dec. 17 and told not to practice because of the concussion and an elevated heart rate. The source said Leach called a trainer and directed him to move James “to the darkest place, to clean out the equipment and to make sure that he could not sit or lean. He was confined for three hours.”
A source told The Associated Press that James said Leach told him if he came out, he would be kicked off the team.
According to the source, Leach told the trainer, two days later, to “put [James] in the darkest, tightest spot. It was in an electrical closet, again, with a guard posted outside.”
Coach Leach picked the wrong time to treat concussions as though they were things players pretend to have to get out of practice. If he is fired over this controversy, I’m not sure a team in the NFL will touch him. The NFL has been working very hard at changing the way teams treat concussions. If a team were to turn around and hire Leach, a guy who evidently believes the best way to treat concussions is to make the injured player stand in a dark room for hours, I don’t think the league would react very positively to the hiring.
Did Chris Henry kill himself?
According to one of Chris Henry’s neighbors, the Cincinnati Bengals receiver told the mother of his three children that if she proceeded to drive away, he was going to kill himself.
From ESPN:
Neighbor Lee Hardy told WLWT-TV and The Cincinnati Enquirer that he was working in his yard when the truck left the driveway. Hardy said Henry was yelling that he needed to talk to the woman behind the wheel.
“He said, ‘If you take off, I’m going to jump off the truck and kill myself,’” Hardy told the newspaper.
The first 911 tape was from an unidentified woman who said she was following a yellow pickup truck.
“It’s got a black man on it with no shirt on, and he’s got his arm in a cast and black pants on,” she told a dispatcher. “He’s beating on the back of this truck window. … I don’t know if he’s trying to break in or something. It just looks crazy. It’s a girl driving it.”
So much for Henry turning his life around. Whatever that means. It sounds to me that he was still doing stupid things. Jumping into the back of a pickup truck, shirtless, beating on the back window. On Monday the high in Charlotte, North Carolina was only 48 degrees. I have to believe that’s not optimum weather for taking a ride in the back of a moving pickup truck, especially when you’re not wearing a shirt.
Lima beans, fat-free mayonnaise, the music of Jimmy Buffet, and JaMarcus Russell
What do the four subjects in the title all have in common? They are all things I hate.
Russell is the new Marc Wilson – San Francisco Chronicle
How about those Raiders?
AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
They’ve only beat four teams this season. It’s a shame Pennsylvania doesn’t have any more teams in the NFL for the Raiders to play.
I “watched” the game yesterday on the Raiders official website while I was really watching the Saints beat the Redskins on the TV. The Raiders game was actually exciting, waiting for the browser screen to update with the down and the field position. I was so focused on the actual field position that I didn’t even notice that the Raiders had scored with less than two minutes on the clock. I showed Sheri that they now had the ball on the 2 yard line and she had to point out that they had scored.
The ball was on the two yard line for the extra point.
Journeyman quarterback Bruce Gradkowski had a phenomenal game yesterday. He went 22 for 33 for 308 yards with no picks. He also threw 3 touchdowns. His quarterback rating yesterday was 121.8. I’d be lying if I really knew how that was formulated. All I know is that anything over 100 is pretty stinking good.
I grew up a Raiders fan, but my love for the Silver and Black has faded since I’ve been living in Maryland. At least I thought it did. I felt my fandom for the team rekindle while back home on vacation this past summer. I saw all the Raiders swag in the stores and it took me back to my youth.
Jamal Lewis calls it a career
NFL running back Jamal Lewis has been placed on the NFL’s Injured Reserve (IR) list by the Cleveland Browns due to post concussion symptoms. His brain is damaged from injuries he sustained while playing football. Being placed on the IR not only ends Lewis’ season, it also means the end of his football career. Lewis previously announced that this season would be his last in the NFL.
Before playing for the Browns, Lewis played for the Baltimore Ravens who drafted Lewis with the fifth pick overall pick in the 2000 NFL draft. He played in a Superbowl his rookie season, running for over 100 yards and scoring a touchdown in Super Bowl XXXV. In 2003, he rushed for 2,066 yards, 39 yards short of the all-time NFL record for rushing yards in a season, a record held by Eric Dickerson.
Lewis was a hard runner with quick feet. He could run a defender over or run right past them.
I came up with the name for this blog because of Jamal Lewis. More or less. I was the winning bidder on an eBay auction for a “mint” Jamal Lewis rookie card. I paid for the card and when it arrived in the mail, it wasn’t “mint” as advertised. It had a bent corner. I emailed the seller and tried to return the card for a refund, but he was not interested. After emailing the seller a couple of times complaining about my “mint” card with the bent corner, I gave up. This was around the time I was thinking of starting a blog. I decided that I would try to take my dissatisfying eBay experience and make something positive out of it.
It was then that Bent Corner was born.
Hines Ward has lied to doctors about being straight
Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Hines Ward, voted the NFL’s dirtiest player, called out Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for missing last night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens won the game in overtime, but Ward’s comments came before the game in a taped interview with NBC’s sports gnome Bob Costas:
“This game is almost like a playoff game. It’s almost a must-win. I could see some players or teammates questioning, like ‘It’s just a concussion. I’ve played with a concussion before,’” Ward told Costas in an interview taped Saturday at the team’s suburban-Baltimore hotel as a prelude to the Steelers-Ravens game.
“It’s almost like a 50-50 toss-up in the locker room: Should he play? Shouldn’t he play? It’s really hard to say. I’ve been out there dinged up; the following week, got right back out there. Ben practiced all week. He split time with Dennis Dixon. And then to find out that he’s still having some headaches and not playing and it came down to the doctors didn’t feel that they were going to clear him or not – it’s hard to say. Unless you’re the person [himself]. … I’ve lied to a couple of doctors saying I’m straight, I feel good when I know that I’m not really straight.”
Maybe Ward should not go around saying he’s lied about being straight. Someone might just take that comment the wrong way. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I never thought I’d be doing this, but I feel the need to defend Ben Roethlisberger. He was right to sit out the game. A concussion is a brain injury. Unlike many of the human organs like the lung or the kidney, you only get one brain. You cannot mess around with brain injuries.
When in doubt, sit it out.
Not only is the potential for re-injury much greater with a quarterback than a receiver, a quarterback has to do a lot more in a game than a receiver. Roethlisberger has to orchestrate the entire offense while Ware only has to catch balls that get thrown his way (by Roethlisberger) and dive at the knees of defensive players on running plays.
Hines Ward should just keep his mouth shut.
Raiders finally invite JaMarcus Russell to take a seat
The Oakland Raiders have announced that they are benching former number one draft pick quarterback JaMarcus Russell and will be starting journeyman quarterback Bruce Gradkowski for the foreseeable future.
It’s about time.
Russell has been an awful NFL quarterback. If the Raiders didn’t use an overall number one draft pick on him and paid him over $30 million in guaranteed money, I have to believe they would have benched him a lot sooner. Not that benching him is even the correct move. They need to release him. He has no business being in the NFL. Though he is a talented athlete, I don’t think he really wants to play football. I don’t think his heart is in it. Someone with his raw talent shouldn’t be as bad as he is. His passer rating this season is only 47.7. He’s thrown nine interceptions and fumbled the ball five times.
And to think the Raiders cut Jeff Garcia before the season started, supposedly to give Russell a shot of confidence going into the season. Also, one of the reason’s Raiders owner Al Davis gave for firing former head coach Lane Kiffin was that Kiffin never believed in JaMarcus Russell and was against drafting him.
Imagine that.
Terrell Suggs may miss the rest of the season
Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn’s wallet is a bit lighter thanks to the illegal chop-block on Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs. Quinn refuses to say how much the fine from the NFL is, but a league source tells ESPN that it’s $10,000.
An MRI exam showed that Suggs suffered a severe MCL sprain in his right knee resulting from Quinn’s chop-block on Monday night. Suggs’ agent, Gary Wichard, said that his client might miss the rest of the season.
Though I’ve never been a Brady Quinn fan and I think he’s a punk, Terrell Suggs is a thug who brags about hurting opposing players. No matter how hard I try, I can’t feel sorry for him. If there is such a thing as karma, it would stand to reason that a player like Suggs would suffer a season ending injury.
Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable tries to defend himself
Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable released a statement in an attempt to defend himself against the allegations presented by ESPN’s Outside the Lines that he physically abuses women.
Make no mistake, Cable is a piece of garbage. In his statement concerning the incident with his former wife Sandy Cable, he paints her as an adulterous whore.
From Tom Cable’s statement:
During my first marriage, I became aware that my wife, Sandy, had committed adultery. I became very angry and slapped her with an open hand. What I did was wrong and I have regretted and felt sorrow about that moment ever since.
Sandy Cable denies that she ever committed adultery. She responded to Tom Cable’s accusation with her own statement:
He constantly made accusations throughout the relationship. There was never any infidelity on my part. And he did not slap me, he punched me.
If what Cable is now saying is true, why in a hand written letter to his first wife Sandy Cable did he refer to the incident as “that day I hit you“? If he had slapped her with an open hand, why didn’t he refer it the incident as that in his letter? If he had slapped her with an open hand — and I’m in no way trying to defend that or trivialize even slapping a woman — I have to think he would have said that, not that he hit her. Describing a slap as a hit makes it sound more severe. I would think the only reason he would have described what happened as “that day I hit you” is if he had in fact actually punched her.
My guess is that if this letter from Cable had not been made public by ESPN, he wouldn’t even be admitting to slapping her with an open hand. Then again, as I pointed out in another post, I don’t know a lot about men that hit women.
I think the NFL has a huge problem on their hands. They can get behind Breast Cancer Awareness month by allowing their players to wear pink gloves and shoes, but if they have a head coach that not only abuses women with physical violence, but then tries to defend himself by calling into question his victim’s sexual fidelity, they have a huge problem on their hands. A huge, misogynistic problem that wont go away until Cable is out of the league.
Chad Ochocinco gets fined $10,000 for wearing the wrong colored chin strap
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco was fined ten grand by the NFL on Friday for a uniform violation. It seems last week when the Bengals played the Houston Texans, Ochocinco wore a chin strap on his helmet that was the wrong color. Instead of the regular white chin strap like all the other Bengal players were wearing, Ochocinco was sporting a black one.
Oh no. The horror.
In his defense, his illegal black chin strap did match his black facemask. Also, a quick Google image search shows that Ochocinco routinely wears a different colored chinstrap. Sometimes he even wears an orange one. If the NFL really cares what color chin straps it’s players wear, it seems they’ve been doing a really bad job at paying attention to such things.
I think fines like this are stupid. All it does is points out to everyone that NFL players make so much money that if they happen to wear the wrong colored chin strap, they are fined more money than the average family of four would spend on a fancy European vacation. What’s even worse is that when a player such as Ochocinco receives a fine like this, he acts like he doesn’t even care.
He acts this way because he really truly doesn’t care. Why would he? Ten grand is nothing to him.
If the NFL really wanted to stop players from wearing the wrong chin straps or the wrong kind of socks, they should get more creative. Simple $10,000 fines don’t work with millionaires.
Ray Lewis is not talking about no fine
The NFL announced yesterday that Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis has been fined $25,000 for two separate dirty plays in the fourth quarter of Baltimore’s 17-14 loss on Sunday. In one of the plays, Lewis evidently thought he was the Karate Kid and kicked an opponent. In another, Lewis executed a viscous helmet-to-helmet hit on Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco after the receiver failed to make a catch. Lewis was penalized for the hit and as a result, the Bengals were awarded 15 yards and another first down. The penalty helped set up the game winning touchdown with only seconds remaining.
All because Ray Lewis couldn’t control himself.
It’s not his fault though. He could not help it. It’s because he’s like a missile:
“But the bottom line is, when I turn to go, I’m like a missile. When I’m locked in, I’m locked in. Whatever’s there is there. Worrying about fines and all that, I’ll let that take care of itself. The NFL does a great job with that. You call them and discuss it with them.”
On Friday, Lewis said, “I’m not talking about no fine.”
It’s important to note that Ray Lewis was “locked on” to a receiver who did not even have the ball. Not that the hit would have been clean if Chad Ochocinco had in fact caught the ball. It was still a dirty helmet-to-helmet hit.
Thanks to my time spent in the Air Force as an electronic warfare systems technician, missiles is one of those rare things that I happen to actually know something about. If Ray Lewis is in fact “like a missile”, he’s a defective one.
Missiles that lock on to false targets are defective.
Fining players like Ray Lewis is a waste of time. He still believes that he didn’t so anything wrong, and that’s really too bad since he will be allowed to take the field Sunday when the Baltimore Ravens take on the Minnesota Vikings. Will he once again “lock on” to the wrong target and because of this, drive his helmet into the helmet of an opposing player while traveling at a high rate of speed?
Ray Lewis probably spends $25,000 a year on his obnoxious looking gold clothing. If the NFL really wanted to penalize players like Ray Lewis for using their helmets as a weapon, they ought to make him spend a few days working with paraplegics or people with severe spine injuries. Maybe then Ray Lewis and players like him would realize just how serious this issue is.
Rush Limbaugh will not be an NFL owner
Right wing conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from the group of investors that want to purchase the St. Louis Rams. Evidently this is some kind of victory for civil rights activists because some of them balked at the idea of someone like Rush Limbaugh, who’s made several racially insensitive comments over the years on his popular radio show, owning a football team.
The difference with Limbaugh and every other rich white guy in his late 50’s is that Limbaugh says what he says in public.
Even though I’m a tree hugging liberal, I’ve always admired Rush Limbaugh. Not because I agree with his politics, because I don’t, but because he’s very good at what he does. If you are a fan of talk radio, you cannot help but notice that he is the best at what he does. There are many other right wing radio talk show hosts on the air, but none are as good at what they do as Limbaugh.
Does Limbaugh say some outrageous stuff that borders on racism? Perhaps, but that’s his job. He’s a conservative talk radio host that talks for a living. He has a massive audience and he knows what they want to hear. Is he a racist? Maybe, but why would a racist want to own a team that plays in a league where most of the players are black? If Limbaugh is a racist, maybe the thing he needs to do is to interact with more black people, something he would easily be able to do if he was a part owner of an NFL team.
Act like a thug, get treated like a thug
Jamison Hensley from the Baltimore Sun wrote an article asking the question if perhaps the Baltimore Ravens are being “overscrutinized” by the NFL and it’s officials.
From the Baltimore Sun:
The questionable roughing-the-passer penalties in the Ravens’ 27-21 loss Sunday to the New England Patriots have spurred a national debate on whether Tom Brady is being overprotected by officials.
But there is another issue: Are the Ravens being overscrutinized?
I don’t think it’s possible to “overscrutinize” (is that even a word?) the Baltimore Ravens defense, especially linebackers Terrell Suggs or Ray Lewis.
They try to hurt people.
Terrell Suggs once went on a Baltimore radio show and spoke about how the defense puts “bounties” on opposing players. They aren’t content with merely making sound tackles and good football plays, they want to hurt people.
Ray Lewis is a thug, on and off the field. Before games he attempts to pump up his teammates by leading them in ridiculous chants about knocking people out. These Lewis led spectacles are routinely televised for the viewing public, which I’m guessing is one of the reasons they happen in the first place. Personally speaking, I don’t want to see anyone get “knocked out”. I think it’s a bad thing when a player gets hurt and lays motionless on the field. I for one don’t want to see it. The goal should be to make these type of events far less common than they currently are.
Even once is too much.
Football is entertainment. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t want someone to get paralyzed (or worse) for the sake of my entertainment. It’s the main reason I don’t watch professional wrestling anymore. Too many guys were getting paralyzed or even killed fake-fighting for the sake of entertainment.
I don’t think the officials calling the game should ever give these two players, Suggs or Lewis, the benefit of the doubt when it comes to late hits or unnecessary roughness. When it comes to either Suggs or Lewis, when in doubt, throw the flag.
It will be the right thing to do far more than not.
I watched the Cincinnati Bengals play the Baltimore Ravens yesterday afternoon. Living in Maryland, my choices in watching football are extremely limited. How ironic it was that a dirty, helmet-to-helmet hit by Ray Lewis on a defenseless Bengals player who did not even have the ball gave the Bengals 15 yards and even more importantly, another first down. The Bengals were able to continue marching down the field and they eventually scored a game winning touchdown.
Made possible because Ray Lewis couldn’t control himself. He wanted to knock someone out and his team lost the game because of it.
Plaxico Burress goes to prison
The New York State Department of Correctional Services have released the official mugshot of one of their newest inmates, ex-New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress. Not only did they take away his freedom for the next two years for accidentally shooting himself in the leg, they made him get rid of this chin hair.
Who knew they didn’t allow facial hair in prison? At least they don’t in New York prisons. Terrorist masterminds held down in Guantanamo Bay are allowed to look like they are members of ZZ Top. I guess that’s different because they hate America and they grow beards because it’s part of their religion, the same religion that inspired them to send airliners packed with innocent people into buildings also packed with innocent people on a September morning.
I feel bad for Plaxico Burress and that says a lot because I’ve never liked him all that much. Not when he played at Michigan State, not when he played with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and not when he played with the New York Giants. I feel bad for him because he has to sit in prison for the next two years simply because he accidentally shot himself in the leg. Prisons should be for criminals. How does shooting yourself in the leg make you a criminal?
Don’t get me wrong, I think Plaxico Burress did an incredibly stupid thing. I think taking a loaded handgun into New York City to go clubbing in an asinine thing to do, especially when you simply stuff it into the waist of your pants and don’t engage the handgun’s safety. It was truly a boneheaded thing to do. That doesn’t mean I think he should go to prison for it.
Putting a bullet in his own leg should have been his punishment, not prison.
Shawne Merriman chokes reality star girlfriend
San Diego Chargers star linebacker and Maryland alumni Shawne Merriman was arrested on Sunday for allegedly choking and throwing girlfriend Tila Tequila, a woman that somehow got famous on MySpace and then parlayed that fame into a gig on an MTV reality show.
Being that Merriman is a San Diego Charger, I thought the only choking he did was in the post season.
It also goes to show what I know about the California legal system. I didn’t know it was illegal to choke Tila Tequila.
Brett Favre is a dirty player
Last night’s pre-season game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Houston Texans featured Vikings quarterback Brett Favre lining up wide left as a receiver in the “wildcat” package. Vikings receiver Percy Harvin takes the direct snap and runs with the ball towards the left. Texans safety Eugene Wilson is then taken out of the play by Farve who delivers an illegal crack block directly at Harvin’s knees.
A flag is thrown and Wilson is on the ground in obvious pain. Does Farve go over to Wilson to say anything or to see if just how hurt he is? No, he just walks on by like the pill popping, cheap shot artist that he obviously is.
Maybe Brett Favre just hates living in Mississippi
Once again, Brett Favre has decided to come out of retirement and return to the NFL. This time the former Green Bay Packers star quarterback is returning to the NFC and will be playing for the Minnesota Vikings. Last year he came out of retirement to play for the New York Jets.
The Vikings reportedly signed Favre to a two-year contract, paying him $12 million this year and another $13 million next year if he remains with the team that long.
Will Favre ever stayed retired? He’s 39 years old. That’s 104 in professional football player years.
Maybe the reason Favre is constantly changing his mind about retirement is because he just doesn’t want to live in Mississippi. It seems like he retires, goes back home to Mississippi, and then decides that he wants to play some more football. Maybe he just hates living in Mississippi.
Can anyone really blame him?
Maybe next time he retires, he ought to pack up the family and move somewhere else. Someplace that’s not Mississippi. If I had his money and could live anywhere in the world, I’d move to Santa Barbara, California.
I certainly wouldn’t live in Mississippi.
The NFL sort of reinstates Michael Vick
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has conditionally reinstated quarterback Michael Vick. From ESPN:
Vick, free after serving 18 months in prison for running a dogfighting ring, was reinstated with conditions by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday.
Vick can immediately take part in preseason practices, workouts and meetings and can play in the final two preseason games — if he can find a team that will sign him. A number of teams have already said they would not.
Once the season begins, Vick may participate in all team activities except games, and Goodell said he would consider Vick for full reinstatement by Week 6 (Oct. 18-19) at the latest.
I don’t really see the point in this. Either Vick should be allowed to play in the NFL or he shouldn’t. I don’t really see the point of suspending him from playing in the first six games of the season. Does Goodell think that Vick hasn’t been punished enough? The man spent 18 months in federal prison. I think that’s punishment enough.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no fan of dogfighting or the people that engage in it. I think it’s a disgusting and barbaric activity. I think killing animals for entertainment is wrong, whether it’s dogfighting or bullfighting.
I just think people need to dial down the public outrage when it comes to Michael Vick.
Ben Roethlisberger accused of raping a casino employee
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is being sued in Nevada for sexually assaulting a Harrah’s casino employee in Lake Tahoe he lured to his room under the pretense that his television wasn’t working. From WTAE ABC TV:
The story was broken on Monday evening by ProFootballTalk.com, which reported that Harrah’s casino employee Andrea McNulty filed the civil lawsuit last week in Washoe County, Nev., stemming from an alleged incident at a hotel room in July 2008.
Roethlisberger is not facing any criminal charges, and it’s unclear if McNulty ever tried to file a criminal complaint before taking legal action against him.
Roethlisberger was in Lake Tahoe playing in a charity celebrity golf tournament.
When did LaDainian Tomlinson win a championship?
I saw this book, LT & Me: What Raising a Champion Taught Me about Life, Faith, and Listening to Your Dreams, sitting in the book store yesterday. It’s written by Loreane Tomlinson, mother of San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson. The book insinuates that LaDainian Tomlinson is a champion.
The thing is, he’s not.
He’s never won a Super Bowl. In fact, he’s never even played in a Super Bowl. I’m sure he’s watched one, but who hasn’t?
If he’s never won a Super Bowl, why is his mother identifying herself as the mother of a champion?
In case you’re wondering, LaDainian Tomlinson didn’t win a championship in college either. He played college ball at Texas Christian. They’ve never won the national championship.
Maybe he won a championship in high school. If that’s the case, why isn’t he wearing his high school jersey instead of his San Diego Chargers jersey?
I’m not trying to knock LaDainian Tomlinson. I think he’s a fine NFL running back – as long as he’s playing in the regular reason. In the postseason, he tends to disappear, unless the TV camera pans the bench.
He’s just not a champion. I don’t see how his mother can write a book where she claims that she raised a champion.
Who knew the NFL had a problem with players getting drunk and killing people?
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has indefinitely suspended Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth for getting his drink on, getting behind the wheel of this 2005 Bentley, and killing a man.
From the Miami-Herald:
“The conduct reflected in (Stallworth’s) guilty plea resulted in the tragic loss of life and was inexcusable,” said Goodell in a letter to Stallworth. “While the criminal justice system has determined the legal consequences of this incident, it is my responsibility as NFL Commissioner to determine appropriate league discipline for your actions, which have caused irreparable harm to the victim and his family, your club, your fellow players and the NFL.”
Stallworth received only a 30-day jail sentence after agreeing to plead guilty to DUI manslaughter. Like most people, I was surprised by the leniency of the plea agreement. I figured getting drunk and killing a man would earn Stallworth at least six weeks in jail, possibly even eight weeks.
Roger Goodell is a tough disciplinarian. Football players should try to avoid killing people on his watch.
NFL player kills a man and gets a whopping 30 days in jail
Donte’ Stallworth, wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns, got behind the wheel of his black 2005 Bentley after a night of drinking at a Miami Beach bar and hit and killed a pedestrian, 59-year old construction worker Mario Reyes. Stallworth was arrested for DUI manslaughter and faced a possible 15 years in prison. He first reached a financial agreement with Reyes’ family and he then accepted a plea deal from the Miami prosecutor that gave him only 30 days in jail.
Get drunk, get behind the wheel, kill a man, and get only 30 days in jail.
Good thing he only killed a man and not pit bulls. Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick ran a dog fighting ring and spent 23 month federal prison. He was also kicked out of the NFL. Will Donte’ Stallworth also get the heave-ho from the league?
We shall see.
Ravens draft offensive lineman Michael Oher
The Baltimore Ravens used their first-round draft pick to select an offensive lineman, University of Mississippi’s Michael Oher. How heavy is that ceremonial draft-day jersey if it takes five men to hold it up for the photo?
And what’s up with the guy on the right? You would think the smallest guy on stage would make a point of not holding the jersey with his pinkie sticking up in the air.
What is it, an NFL ceremonial draft-day jersey or a cup of tea?
The Steelers beat a 9-7 team in the Super Bowl so they are now World Champains
I was one of the four Americans that didn’t watch the Super Bowl Sunday night. I just couldn’t get enthused about a Super Bowl involving the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals. Neither team was one of the two best teams in the NFL.
One could maybe argue that the Steelers were one of the best, but no such argument could be made about the 9-7 Cardinals. They truly had no business being in the Super Bowl. And to think they actually almost won.
I didn’t want to watch the game because I just don’t like the Steelers. I’ve never liked them. I don’t care too much for their fans either. Growing up in California during the Terry Bradshaw era, every bandwagon kid I knew was a Steelers fan. Those that weren’t Steelers fans were usually Cowboy fans.
Living here in Maryland, I’m surrounded by Steelers fans. It’s as though they never realized that Maryland has two professional football teams and the Steelers aren’t one of them.
I knew that if I watched the Super Bowl, I’d see a game where the Steelers not only would win, but would get at least one “controversial” call by the officials that helped them greatly. How surprising that I turned out to be right on both accounts.
The only football game I’m looking forward to watching today
Most of my fellow Americans are looking forward to watching the Arizona Cardinals (9-7) face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) in tonight’s Super Bowl. Though I may (or may not) watch the Big Game™ between these two teams, I could honestly care less who wins. Neither team was the best team this past season. That distinction belongs to the Tennessee Titans (13-3).
Six other teams in the NFC had either better or equal records compared to the the Cardinals. Three teams in the AFC had records either better or equal when compared to the Steelers.
I’ve never put much stock into the Super Bowl. Only occasionally does the winner of the Super Bowl represent the best football team that year. The purpose of the Super Bowl is not to separate the very best from the best football teams in the league, it’s to separate as much money from TV networks, advertisers, gamblers, and attendees as possible.
It’s all about the money.
The football game I’m looking forward to watching today doesn’t involve the NFL. It involves two teams that play real football, Lazio and AC Milan of the Italian football league. Normally we only watch the English Premier League, but now that David Beckham is finally playing (and scoring) for AC Milan, it will be an interesting game to watch.
Something to think about before sitting down to enjoy the Super Bowl
American style football is extremely damaging to the people that play it. Specifically, it’s extremely damaging to their brains.
The Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) has studied brain tissue collected from retired NFL players collected after they have died and the results show that the long term brain damage sustained from concussions is far worse than what was earlier believed.
Of course the NFL is planning on conducting their own study of the long term effects of concussions and I’m sure their findings will be the complete opposite of the CSTE. In fact, their “independent” study will probably show that concussions are actually good for the brain.
It should really be no surprise that helmet-to-helmet collisions between two NFL players is causing damage to their brains. Perhaps when a player needs to be carted off the field strapped to a stretcher, it should be a clue that we need to find something less dangerous to our fellow man to entertain ourselves with.
I used to enjoy watching professional wrestling. I of course knew it was fake, but that was one of the reasons I enjoyed it. It was theater. Something happened that ruined it for me. It was the pay-per-view when Owen Hart fell from the rafters in Kansas City and as a result of his injuries from hitting the top rope, he died. We were watching that event live. The thought that someone died while trying to entertain me troubled me. I never felt the same way about professional wrestling again. It was not a conscious decision. It was just something I felt.
I don’t want to think that someone has to be harmed so I can be entertained. I definitely don’t want to think that someone is getting brain damage. How about you?
Link (CNN)
When did Kurt Warner’s wife stop looking like Cloris Leachman?
Brenda Warner, wife of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner looks a lot different than she looked back when husband Kurt played for the Saint Louis Rams. Back than, she had short, gray spiky hair. She kind of looked like Cloris Leachman.
Ten years ago when husband Kurt emerged on the national scene, she was often mistaken for his mother. Now she actually looks like the wife of a quarterback playing in the Super Bowl.
Ravens advance to the AFC Championship
The Baltimore Ravens beat the Tennessee Titans on Saturday, 13-10, to advance to the AFC Championship game. They will play their AFC North rival the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday night for the chance to go to the Superbowl. Once again, the Ravens are relying on their stellar defense to advance in the post-season.
The NFL being the NFL, there was of course an officiating mistake that helped the Ravens. With less than three minutes in the game and the Ravens on offense, the play clock clearly went down to zero before the Ravens could start the play.
Oops.
The NFL is screwed up
One needs no more proof that the NFL is screwed up than last night’s playoff game between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Diego Chargers. The Colts went 12-4 for the season and finished winning 9 straight games. The Chargers not only didn’t finish the season winning 9 straight games, they failed to win 9 games at all.
They finished the season going only 8-8.
The Detroit Lions need to be relegated to the CFL
The Detroit Lions lost again today making their record (so far) for the season 0-15. If they lose next week, they will be the first team to go without a win for the season since the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At least the 1976 Bucs were a new expansion team. The Lions are one of the NFL’s oldest teams.
The Lions are just an awful team. They have been an awful team for a very long time and they will continue being an awful team for years to come.
Unfortunately there is nothing really that can be done to encourage the Lions to get better. Every year they get one of the highest draft picks and they continuously waste in on wide receivers.
Because of the magic of NFL revenue sharing, William Clay Ford, the owner of the Detroit Lions, makes as much money as any other NFL owner. All NFL teams share TV revenue. All NFL teams share stadium revenue. All NFL teams also share merchandising revenue. That means if you were to go into Finish Line or Champs and buy a Steelers jersey the Lions get the same percentage of the profits as the Steelers.
The only thing that can be done at this point is to kick the team out of the NFL. Let them try to join the Canadian Football League (CFL), but honestly, I don’t think they are good enough even for that. It would actually be an easy transition since part of the Detroit metro area is in Windsor, Ontario. They would have to change their name though because the CFL already has a team named the Lions.
In the English Premiere League (EPL), at the end of every season the three worst teams in the league are relegated down to the lower league, the Coca-Cola League while the three best teams in the Coca-Cola League are promoted up to the EPL. They do this to ensure a team like the Lions doesn’t just get to hang around and dilute the quality of play in the league.
NFL tries to strong arm cable companies into carrying the NFL Network
Last night the Baltimore Ravens played the Dallas Cowboys down in Texas and won the game, 34-24. I only know this because I was able to read about it on the Internet. Even though the NFL decided over a decade ago that the Baltimore Ravens were officially my local team, I could not watch the game last night. It was not shown on any of the channels I can get on TV. The game was televised exclusively by the NFL Network. My cable provider, Antietam Cable, like most cable providers, refuses to carry the NFL Network.
I would have liked to watch the game last night. Both teams are fighting for a spot in the playoffs. Last night’s game was the final game to be played in Texas Stadium. Starting next year, the Dallas Cowboys will be playing in a new stadium. The game had some real significance.
By only showing the game on the NFL Network, the NFL is attempting to ratchet up the pressure on cable companies like Antietam Cable to carry the NFL Network. They somehow think that if they irritate and enrage enough people like me by not allowing us to watch our local team, we will somehow force cable companies to buckle. It’s not going to happen. There is nothing I can do to make Antietam Cable carry the NFL Network. I’ve written emails. I’ve signed petitions. They still refuse to carry the NFL Network.
Continuing to withhold NFL football games from me is not going to do anything other than to piss me off.
Let this be a warning to football hippies everywhere
For a few years now it’s been somewhat popular for football players to grow their hair really long and to fashion said hair into dreadlocks. The hair then protrudes out the back of the helmet. Sometimes it’s so long that it even covers up the player’s name.
I’ve always wondered what would happen if one of these hippie players got tackled by a defender pulling their hair. It looks like I got my answer.
Here we see Louisville’s Travis Norton tackle Rutgers’ Jourdan Brooks by yanking down on the dreadlocks. Take that hippie!
I don’t think this tackle would be legal in the NFL. Unfortunately it would most likely be considered a horse collar tackle. They’ve been banned in the NFL for a few years now. I don’t think they’re banned in the NCAA. Maybe the NFL could make an exception for hippies.
I don’t like hippies.
Plaxico Burress charged with two felonies
The Smoking Gun has a copy of the two page felony indictment against New York football Giants Plaxico Burress. The document seems to rely heavily on an unnamed informant. It also claims that Burress possessed the loaded handgun with “the intent to use it unlawfully against another.” I’m not sure how anyone, especially an unnamed informant, can speak to Burress’ intent.
Upon shooting himself in the leg, Burress reportedly told his friends, “Take me to the hospital”.
Mayor Bloomberg is demanding that prosecutors throw the book at Burress. He seems especially perturbed over the fact that the NYPD didn’t even know about this incident until they learned about it on TV. New York law requires a minimum of 3-1/2 years in jail for a conviction of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Burress is looking at a maximum of 20 years for shooting himself in the leg.
I’m not sure how they can convict him when they don’t have any physical evidence against him. They didn’t catch him with the gun actually in his possession. They don’t even have the gun. It’s as though he’s merely being charged with what was reported on ESPN.
If Plaxico Burress wasn’t a professional football player, if he was just some regular dude, would he be charged with two felonies? I’m thinking that if he was just a regular person who accidentally shot himself in the leg, the mayor of New York wouldn’t be screaming for blood. Chances are, he wouldn’t even know about it. Nobody would know about. When NYPD cops pumped 50 rounds into an unarmed man, I don’t remember Mayor Bloomberg calling for prosecutors to throw the book at the police officers.
Plaxico Burress to be changed with criminal possession of a weapon
From the New York Daily News:
Troubled Giants star Plaxico Burress, who shot himself in the leg with an unlicensed gun at a Manhattan nightclub, will turn himself in to cops Monday.
The Big Blue receiver will plead not guilty to charges of criminal possession of a weapon, his lawyer told the Daily News.
Burress, who is holed up inside his palatial New Jersey estate today while his team was in Washington D.C. playing the Redskins, will not talk to investigators when booked at Manhattan’s 17th Precinct, his lawyer Benjamin Brafman said.
I don’t see how exactly Plaxico Burress is going to be charged with a crime. The New York City Police didn’t even know about this until they read about it in the newspaper. They weren’t called to the night club when Burress was shot. They weren’t called to the hospital. They don’t have the gun. They can’t force Plaxico Burress to answer any of their questions. They have no real evidence other than what they are reading in the papers.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Plaxico Burress is an idiot. I just don’t think the New York City cops are any better.
Plaxico Burress shoots himself in the leg
New York football Giants Plaxico Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg on Friday:
The New York Giants wide receiver accidentally shot himself in the leg on Friday night, FOXSports.com has learned, not long after being ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Redskins with a hamstring injury.
He spent the night in the hospital and the injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The team is still trying to gather further information on the incident.
Once again Fox Sports breaks a story that ESPN only knows about if they are constantly patrolling the Fox Sports website. I realize that ESPN has crowned itself the worldwide leader in sports, but how many times do they need to get out scooped before the relinquish their crown to Fox Sports?
ESPN sucks.
Wow, the Lions really suck
Like a good American I’m watching the first NFL game between the Tennessee Titans and the Detroit Lions. I cannot believe just how bad the Lions really are. Granted, I realized before this game that they were a whopping 0-11 for the season. If anything, they are even worse than their meager record suggests.
Why than are they even on national TV?
I know that they have always been shown on TV on Thanksgiving Day and it’s some sort of tradition, but enough is enough. The NFL should have yanked them from their Thanksgiving Day obligation years ago. You don’t showcase your worst team on national TV for the entire country to watch.
I have to hand it to Lions fans. It looks as though the stadium is packed with people. It’s not like they don’t have anything better to do. It takes a lot to be a Lions fan in 2008.
NFL referees must have a soft spot for Las Vegas bookmakers
During the final seconds of the Chargers-Steelers game Sunday, the Steelers were up on the Chargers 11-10. The Chargers had only time for one play. Chargers QB Philip Rivers made it a short pass to Ladainian Tomlinson, who flipped it back to Chris Chambers, and Chambers lateraled it to the ground because I guess the ground was wide open.
Steelers long haired hippie Troy Polamalu picked the ball up and ran it back for a touchdown, giving the Steelers a 17-10 lead as time expired. Before the Steelers could kick the extra point making the final score 18-10, an official in the booth reviewed the play and announced that one of the lateral passes was not a lateral, but an illegal forward pass. The touchdown was called off and the final score resorted back to a final of 11-10.
Either way, the Steelers would have won the game. The only difference is that in Las Vegas, the bookmakers had the Steelers as five point favorites. This meant that if you placed a wager on the Steelers, they would only win your bet if the Steelers won by more then five points.
From Pregame.com:
An estimated 100 million dollars was wagered worldwide on the Pittsburgh/San Diego game, according to RJ Bell of Pregame.com. Approximately 66% of that money was on the Steelers; with only 34% on the Chargers.
“If the touchdown was properly upheld, Steelers bettors would have won about 32 million dollars instead of losing big. This admittedly incorrect call resulted in a 64 million dollar swing in favor of the bookies,” said RJ Bell of Pregame.com.
There was no valid reason for the official in the booth to reverse the call. There was no flag on the play. There was no whistle blown. When Troy Polamalu picked up the ball, it was a live ball.
Part of me thinks it’s funny that so many gamblers lost money when they really shouldn’t have. Anyone stupid enough to bet their money on something they have no control over deserves to get fleeced. With that said, I think this makes the NFL look really bad. It looks like they have a problem with officiating in that game officials have an interest in things such as a gambling points spread.
So much for the Sirius-XM merger not requiring a new radio
To say I’m not happy with the reality of the Sirius-XM satellite radio merger is an understatement. I’ve already blogged about the fact that they removed one of my favorite music channels. I’ve now learned that my $150, 6-month old radio does not support the new A La Carte pricing packages.
Back when the two companies were attempting to get the federal government to change the law and allow the two competing satellite radio companies to merge, this was one of the things that would make the merger cheaper for the consumer. Instead of having to pay for channels you do not want, you could select 50 total channels that you wanted and pay less then the standard $13 bucks a month.
This past May I purchased a Sirius Sportster 5. It was (and still is) the most expensive radio sold by Sirius. It does not support A La Carte pricing.
Instead of paying less, I am now paying even more. The reason? To get some of the XM-only radio programing such as the NHL and NBA along with Ron and Fez, I had to cough up another four bucks a month for their “Best of XM package”.
You can’t tell me that they could have made the A La Carte pricing package available to everyone if they chose to. Instead they are using it to sell new radios.
Steve Young supports No on Prop 8
My home state of California has a proposition on the ballot asking Californians if marriage between two gay people should be banned or not. If you vote YES on Proposition 8, it means gay marriage should be illegal. If you vote NO on Proposition 8, it means gay people should be allowed to enter into committed relationships with the person they love.
Proposition 8, if passed, will amend the state Constitution to take away a right that people currently have. Gay marriage is currently legal in California. Some people have a problem with that. The ballot measure has been heavily bankrolled by Mormons. Not only do they have a problem with a cold Pepsi on a hot day, they have a problem with gay folks getting married. Go figure.
Not all Mormons are against Prop 8. One of America’s favorite Mormons, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young has donated $37,000 to Equity California, a group that it working to defeat the ballot measure. The checks have all been signed by Steve’s wife Barb, but she has made it clear in a statement that both her and Steve are against Proposition 8.
Who does Terrell Suggs think he is, Boba Fett?
Last week Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs appeared on a sports radio show where he admitted to the two hosts that the Ravens had a “bounty” on two Pittsburgh Steelers players, rookie running back Rashard Mendenhall and All-Pro receiver Hines Ward. In a recent Monday night Ravens-Steelers game, Mendenhall suffered a fractured left shoulder and will miss the rest of the season. He was injured in the game and required surgery. Ward escaped the game unscathed.
The NFL responded to the talk of a bounty by writing a terse letter to Suggs stating that talk of bounties will not be tolerated and if it happens again, he will face “significant disciplinary action.” Whatever that means.
Maybe the NFL missed the point that the bounty existed with the whole Ravens team. Sending a letter only to Suggs doesn’t really take of the problem. It makes it look as though the real egregious act was not the bounty itself, but talking about it on a radio show.
The NFL has a thuggery problem. Not that this should be news to anyone. What I find to be surprising is how anemic the NFL seems to be at taking care of the problem.
They aren’t going to fix the problem by writing letters.
The NFL has a steroid problem?
It looks like quite a few NFL players have tested positive for steroids. ESPN is reporting that the New Orleans Saints have three players, Deuce McAllister, Will Smith, and Charles Grant have tested positive under the NFL’s steroid policy.
NFL players are taking steroids? What’s next, an ESPN report that players on the road cheat on their wives?
Of course players in the NFL take steroids. Men don’t naturally put on as much muscle as the average NFL lineman or any of the other strength position players without taking extraordinary messages. That includes lifting lots of weights and taking lots of supplements, including steroids.
Steroids don’t make you stronger. They don’t give you more muscles. What they do is allow you to heal and recover quicker. That means you can lift a lot of weights and spend less time recovering in between workouts. Some people mistakenly think steroids allow you to work less, but the complete opposite is true. They allow you to work harder and more often. [ESPN]
John Madden is taking a day off
This Sunday’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks will have one less old guy at the game. NBC’s NFL color analyst John Madden will be taking the night off.
Madden hasn’t missed his analyst duties in 476 games. Why is he missing this one? Because of Madden’s well documented fear of flying, he travels to games in a tricked out luxury bus. Madden was bused from his home in northern California’s bay area to Jacksonville on October 5. He then bus trekked to San Diego for the October 12 game. The Bucs-Seahawks game on October 19 would have required yet another cross-country bus trip.
John Madden is 72 years old. The amount of bus travel NBC is subjecting him to is stupid and unnecessary. It’s nice that they decided to give him a week off, but why they make him schlep from game to game is ridiculous.
It’s 2008, not 1968.
With the magic of modern technology, Madden doesn’t need to travel to games to provide color commentary. He can do it from anywhere. NBC could set up a remote booth near his home in northern California. It would allow him to call games and sleep in his own bed every night. [Washington Post]
New York Jets safety Eric Smith appealing suspension
Eric Smith, The New York Jets player that committed the dirty hit on Arizona receiver Anquan Boldin in the final seconds of a blowout game is appealing the one-game suspension and the $50,000 fine levied by the NFL. Not that I am surprised. From the AP article:
With 27 seconds remaining and the Jets leading big, Boldin tried to catch a pass from Kurt Warner in the end zone, but was hit in the back by Kerry Rhodes. As Boldin was falling forward, he then took a shot to his helmet from Smith. After being worked on for several minutes, Boldin was immobilized and placed on a stretcher before he was carted off the field. Boldin missed the Cardinals’ game Sunday against Buffalo and is out indefinitely after having surgery to repair a fractured sinus.
The hit was not only dirty, it was vicious. Smith hit Boldin helmet-to-helmet while he was being held by another player and was already falling forward. The helmet is a personal saftey device, not a weapon to be used against other players.
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