Sports Buffet for 05/11/10

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NFL

UFA Charles Grant (NO) had the involuntary manslaughter charge against him dropped. He agreed to a misdemeanor public fighting charge with a fine of $1,000, a year probation and a $20,000 payment to the victims of that confrontation. The charges stemmed from a brawl outside a nightclub that led to the death of an innocent passer by.

Texans LB Bryan Cushing has been suspended for the first 4 games for violations of the NFL drug policy. He was the D Rookie of the year last season despite having failed a test in September of 09. He appealed the decision but lost that appeal and now will serve the suspension.

RFA OG Daryn Colledge signed his tender with the Packers.

We will see a lot of RFA players signing their tenders between now and June 15th. On that date NFL teams can lower the offer and the period for players to get an offer from another team has already expired.

The political left is insisting that the NFL pull the Super Bowl scheduled for Arizona due to the recent law that enforces federal law in the state. I suspect that the gutless Commissioner Goodell will do that despite the fact … Read more at FryingPanSports

The Steelers are having off field problems with their players.

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Star QB Ben Roethlisberger is in his third scrape since joining the team as a rookie. First there was the motorcycle accident that cost him a chunk of the preseason and slowed him early in 06. At the time he was not wearing a helmet. Most teams have included in their contracts a prohibition of “dangerous” activities for key players. Those conditions usually include riding motorcycles.

Then last year he was accused of sexual battery by a woman in Las Vegas. The woman was a worker at a casino and reportedly was asked by Roethlisberger to come to his room and fix a TV. She claims that Roethlisberger prevented her from leaving the room and forced her to have sex. The woman in that case did not go to a hospital or immediately inform police of the incident. According to reports, the woman decided against filing a criminal complaint but did file a civil suit against the QB. While Roethlisberger insisted he had done nothing wrong, there was a confidential settlement, presumably including a payment of some sort, with his accuser.

Again this off season, a 20 year old college student has accused Roethlisberger of sexual assault that reportedly … Read more at FryingPanSports

Does the NFL need to change the overtime rules?

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There were a couple of proposals but the final one that will be voted on this week at the owner’s meeting in Orlando is as follows:

If the team that wins the coin toss goes down the field and scores a touchdown, the game is over. However, if that team is stopped and kicks a field goal, they would have to kick off and give the other team a chance to either score a touchdown or kick a field goal. A 3-3 tie in overtime would begin a true sudden death scenario.

The biggest argument is that both teams should get a shot at the ball. There have been more wins recently by the team getting the ball on the flip. From 75-93 the team that got the ball first won 46.8 of the time. However, from 94-09 the team that got the ball won 60% of overtime games. Worse, the percentage of games ended by a field goal jumped from 18% in 75-93 to 26% in the 94-09 period.

Another argument against the change says that there should not be 2 sets of rules one for the regular season and one for the playoffs. But we have 2 sets … Read more at FryingPanSports

The NBA: First half season review

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Game of the week–LA 87 @ Cleveland 93

The Cavs trailed for 3 quarters but the 4th quarter is LeBron time. LeBron scored 37 with 12 in the last period to make the difference. Bryant had 31It was an outstanding game. Varejao adds so much energy and rebounding and that was critical in this game. He hit 2 free throws with 20 seconds to go after forcing a fowl going after a miss on a free throw by LeBron. This is the kind of game that the Cavs would have lost a couple of years ago. They have now swept the Lakers in their 2 games.

Top NBA teams are struggling with injuries.

The top teams from last year are all struggling with injuries.

Cleveland (33-11) leads the Eastern Conference but will not have G Mo Williams for up to a month. They traded for Shaq but Coach Brown has not figured out yet how to make a square peg fit into a round hole. He is not playing enough minutes to have the impact the Cavs expected. The Cavs need to find a way to stay in front of Boston and Orlando to keep the home floor advantage in … Read more at FryingPanSports

Tuesday QB for 10/27/09

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Teams in serious trouble from the bad to the terrible

The Redskins (2-5) have taken the play calling away from coach Zorn. The main problem is not Zorn and it is not the QB. QB Campbell has a passer rating of 85. Given some of the teams on this list, that is not great but not that bad. Injuries have hurt the team badly. RB Portis is not healthy, they lost their all pro LT Samuels for the season and now the team has lost its best receiver TE Cooley for several weeks with a broken bone in his ankle.

But the real problem of the Redskins has been the draft. The Redskins have traded for players because they couldn’t find good ones in the draft. The down side of doing that is they are always old and always injury prone. The lack of middle round picks over the years have robbed them of quality depth. When a starter gets hurt, there is a large drop off in the abilities of the replacement. This year they will have another high pick but many of the rounds have already been traded away. Zorn will be fired but no one … Read more at FryingPanSports

Tuesday Morning QB for 10/06/09

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TN @ JK The Titans are in serious trouble. Just like the rest of those that watch and are fool enough to try to prognosticate NFL games, I thought the Titans would come around. They have had a ton of injuries on D and on the O line but that is no excuse. They are bad and there are no answers on the bench (see my column on Will Vince Young ever become an NFL QB?). The Titans are out of the playoffs for the first time in a while.

Jacksonville had their game blacked out. They are really struggling to get their attendance up. The only hope to keep the team in place beside a winning streak which won’t happen is to play some games in Orlando. They won’t do that and will end up moving. The 7 of you that have the NFL Network can see Jacksonville games after midnight on that channel.

BA @ NE The Pats took the one path to beat the Ravens that I have seen—Jump ahead and make them a pass first team. The 14 point 2nd quarter by the Pats put the Ravens behind and they gave up on the run. … Read more at FryingPanSports