Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

New Season For the Panthers Look Bright

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Gone are veterans Jake Delhomme, Julius Peppers and Muhsin Muhammad. The Panthers this offseason decided to tear apart the roster and start over again.

Expect at least eight new starters this season, most of whom don’t have much starting experience. None is bigger than quarterback Matt Moore, who is 6-2 as a starter and has thrown 11 touchdowns and three interceptions in those games.

As center Ryan Kalil said to me, “He earned it and deserves to lead this team.”

That may be true, but he will need the continued support of Carolina’s vaunted rushing attack. DeAngelo Williamsand Jonathan Stewart, who became the first pair of teammates last year to rush for more than 1,100 yards in the same season, have provided the Panthers with 45 combined rushing touchdowns in the last two seasons. That kind of production will be crucial to Moore’s — and the Panthers’ — success.

Moore is going to open up the deep passing game, which should make Carolina effective if it can throw with a lead. If this young team has to spread it out and play from behind things could be tough.

As for the defense, it only returns 18 sacks and must find ways to manufacture a pass rush without Peppers.

OBSERVATION DECK

» Coach John Fox and his entire staff are in the last years of their contracts, but you wouldn’t know it because everything around here is upbeat and intense.

Carolina practices in pads with a lot of contact, and none of the young players complain. In fact, as Jon Beasonsaid, “We are building our new identity as a tough team, and these practices help get it done.

» Rookie Jimmy Clausen is a good looking prospect, but he isn’t ready to threaten Moore for the starting job.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

» The Panthers face the difficult task of having to replace six starters on their No. 8 defense from last season. The torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered by linebacker Thomas Davis – for the second time — is a big blow to the unit.

The secondary is solid, but the loss of Chris Harris, who left to Chicago, hurts because he lined everyone up and made the adjustments. It’s time for Sherrod Martin to step up.

» I talked with injured offensive tackle Jeff Otah and wide receiver Steve Smith, and they confirmed that they will be back for the regular season. In the meantime Geoff Schwartz and Brandon LaFell, respectively, are getting tons of experience and may both win starting jobs at other positions when the injured players return.

ROOKIE REPORT

» Clausen works predominantly with the backups and demonstrates good football intelligence. He is working on his mechanics, especially in throwing the slant route. He threw a few on Monday that were on the receivers’ back shoulders. Clausen will be a good player in time, but there’s lots of work to do right now.

» LaFell is the talk of camp. He is threatening to start and has the ability to get off press coverage and snatch balls out of the air.

» Third-rounder Armanti Edwards is a very popular figure in the Carolinas after his exploits at Appalachian State. He is in the midst of transitioning from quarterback to wide receiver/return specialist. He’s done neither before but has the athletic ability to thrive in both areas. Edwards will make the team, but he may not win a spot on the 53-man roster to start the year.

» Eric Norwood, who was selected in the fourth round, is a former college defensive end struggling to learn all of his pass drops. One thing he can do, though, is rush the passer and should probably get in on situational pass plays. Norwood reminds me a bit of Elvis Dumervil.

» Sixth-round quarterback Tony Pike is one of four quarterbacks in Panthers camp under 26 years of age, and he is getting the fewest reps in practice. That’s a bad sign.

» Safety Jordan Pugh, taken in the sixth round, has a few coaches impressed with him enough to say he has a good chance to make the team because of his quickness, agility, balance, and speed.

SAY WHAT?

“Yeah, we see nine-in-the-box looks, especially if Steve Smith is not on the field. But we believe we can run it anyway.”

– Panthers center Ryan Kalil

EXTRA POINTS

I like the Panthers to build on their late-season success last year, when they went 4-1 with Moore under center and averaged 23 points a game. Fox may do his best coaching job in years, but few will accept that when they wind up as a .500 team.

Tar Heel Sport and Carolina Panthers Looking Better Already

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Rape Me Once Shame on You, Rape Me Twice Shame on Me

Friday, August 6th, 2010
Pitino extortionist could get 26 years in prison…..hahahahahahahaha

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Rick Reilly You Suck Too!

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Evel Knievel tried to jump the Snake River Canyon. David Copperfield tried to make 747s disappear. I’m going to try to defend Lane Kiffin.

To read the columnists, Kiffin, USC’s new head football coach, apparently eats poached children for breakfast, sticks sharp things in the eyes of the elderly and drowns kittens for laughs.

Kiffin is the most hated man in football right now, by a par 5. If he met Tony Hayward right now, Hayward would go, “Come on, man! Have you seen what they’re writing about you?”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Mark Bradley has called him a “brat” and a “jerk.” ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski called him a fraud, an egomaniac and a two-faced weasel. Former San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ray Ratto says “you would Wite-Out Pol Pot’s name to hate [Kiffin].” (Ratto prefers the guy who murdered around 2 million Cambodians.)

So when you meet him, you expect to at least see a “666″ shaved in his hairline. Instead, what you get is a tall, slender, friendly 35-year-old with the very odd combination of baby fat in his cheeks and gray hair on the sides of his head. “Got that in Oakland/Alameda,” he says, reminding you he once worked for Al Davis, who called him a “liar” who was “bringing disgrace to the organization.” When you’re accused of disgracing the graceless Raiders, you’ve done something.

ARE you reading what they’re writing about you?

“Sure,” he says. “I have to, just to see what’s coming next. But it doesn’t bother me.”

Psychotherapy?

“Nope.”

So what makes Kiffin the worst human being since Judas? Let us count the ways:

1. They say he has the manners of a hungover raccoon.

He stands accused of not calling Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher for permission to talk to Titans running backs coach Kennedy Pola (Troy Polamalu’s uncle). Pola took the job, causing Fisher to blow a gungalator, and call out Kiffin as “less than professional.” Then the Titans sued Kiffin and USC for “unlawfully” trying to lure Pola away.

Sued!

The lawsuit is phonier than Tori Spelling, of course. Pola, who played at USC and has a son who’s going to walk on there, was the only one legally obligated to ask permission, not Kiffin. It would’ve been nice for Kiffin to do it, “but not everybody asks the head coach first when they’re looking for an assistant,” Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh said Thursday.

USC says that Kiffin called Pola first and said, “Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll call Coach Fisher and let him know we’re talking to you.” But Pola got wrapped up in the decision, according to USC: Stayed up all that Friday night and didn’t call Kiffin back until he’d already talked to Fisher on Saturday. By then it was too late.

OK, slightly poor form by Kiffin. Big whoop. Happens every day in football. The suit is just a ticket ploy. After all, what better way to sell Titans seats than letting everybody in Tennessee know how much the Titans hate Kiffin, like everybody else in the state? Kiffin bolted the head-coaching job at the University of Tennessee to come to USC in the first place. Maybe the ad slogan will be: “Come to the games and we can all hate him together!”

But if you think the state of Tennessee is ever going to sit a jury and hold a trial on this one, then Scopes is a monkey. When I asked Kiffin if he’d patched it up with Fisher, he said, “Yeah, I think he has a better understanding of what happened.”

So why doesn’t he drop the suit?

“Because he’s not suing me. The Titans are. And it’s not really about Jeff and I.”

What’s it about?

“It’s about where the lawsuit is located.”

Exactly.

2. They say he’s disloyal.

He stiffed Tennessee after only one 7-6 season. He told Rocky Top he’d be with them through thick and thin. Even middle-named his son “Knox,” short for Knoxville. But Kiffin coached six seasons at USC as an assistant and considered the head-coaching gig his dream job. So when Pete Carroll suddenly bolted USC (Hey, anybody naming a sewage treatment plant in L.A. after Carroll?), he jumped at it.

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Indecision

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

The last we checked the list of things we know about Brett Favre, he had not done anything criminal, borderline criminal or even moderately seedy. He isn’t Ben Roethlisberger. He isn’t Michael Vick. He isn’t even Tiger Woods. He hasn’t been found to be importing questionable doctors from Canada. He hasn’t humiliated a devoted sports city. O.K., not since 2008, anyway.

So, how has he managed to become sports enemy No. 1, in the non-LeBron division? Why is he getting pounded from all sides, based solely on reports Tuesday that he sent text messages to some Minnesota Vikings teammates saying he is retiring for the umpteenth time?

It is clear there is a Favre nerve out there and he keeps hitting it with a giant hammer. His brand of retirement melodrama hijacks whole teams’ training camps, which is whatprompts CBSSports.com’s Pete Prisco to call him selfish and what drives fans batty, which is why The Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Jim Souhan writes that Vikings fans were given fair warning by previously toyed-with Packers fans. Favre gives general managers, even the ones he doesn’t play for anymore, heartburn — although Wednesday’s report in The Star-Tribune says the Vikings’ brain trust is so desperate that it is trying to throw more money at Favre to return — and provides ESPN with fodder for hours upon hours of breathless reporting and analysis.

(Hmmm. The Worldwide Leader was co-opted by James for “The Decision.” Could it be hatching a whole “Decision” series, with Favre starring in the first 13 episodes? Just a theory …)

Ray Ratto of CBSSports.com comes closest to explaining why Favre is so infuriating, writing that it feels as if he is messing with people just because he can. He is the mold that James poured himself into to disastrous effect. Michael Rosenberg of SI.com believes Favre tipped the annoyance scale by doing this one too many times. Both Michael Silver of Yahoo.com and Peter King of SI.com believe he will play this season, no matter what the text messages say. That’s a theme in this roundup of top 10 quotations about Favre.

The annoyance factor plays a large role in a lot of Wednesday’s news. You can just imagine the sighing and eye-rolling at the prospect of nightclub-shooting Plaxico Burress getting out of prison soon and potentially rejoining the Giants, as George Willis writes in the New York Post. There is a nauseating tinge to the official closing of Mannywood,writes Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times, as the Dodgers finally move away from their drug- and melodrama-tainted star. The serial annoyer Alex Rodriguez is now dragging the Yankees into his current funk with him, writes Tim Smith in The Daily News.

And it would not be a true roundup of annoyance without James, who kicked a bit more sand in Cleveland’s face by ignoring it while taking out an ad in the Akron newspaper.

For good measure, the N.C.A.A. throws in this doozy: its recruiting rules forbid Boise State from offering condolences to the family of one of its recruits who was killed in a recent car accident. Really.

Perhaps you will be a bit cheered by the thought of Shaquille O’Neal — who seems genetically unable to annoy people no matter how much they might want to be annoyed — reportedly joining the Celtics and landing himself in a giant green uniform. The Big Shamrock is the early leader in the race for his new nickname.

Favre’s nicknames are far less colorful. Or, at this point, printable.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Reason # 218 That Lane Kiffin Sucks: His 5 year old daughter makes fun of him

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

Lane Kiffin.

Vilified. Controversial. Funny?

“My 5-year-old daughter, Landry, for some reason, tries to get under my skin all the time,” said the new coach for USC, who along with other Pac-10 coaches visited ESPN’s campus in Connecticut on Wednesday. “She likes to run around and say her favorite person in the NFL is … Al Davis. I don’t know where she got that idea from.”

“Davis” would be the Oakland Raiders owner who hired Kiffin in 2007 — making him the youngest head coach in modern NFL history — and then, a year later, fired him and then went on national TV to rake him over the coals.

“It wasn’t me who told her that!” said Kiffin’s wife, Layla.

Kiffin quipped: “Hey, I don’t think she’s part of the interview. She’s eating.”

Is this the new Lane Kiffin, the coach who has stepped in it a little too much and talked about it a little too much?

“It doesn’t fit my personality to be quiet,” said Kiffin, who has come under fire at every stop in his coaching career. “I don’t want to keep saying ‘no comment’ to everyone. So I’m very open and to a fault. It’s really hurt me over time.”

You think?

The son of legendary NFL defensive coach Monte Kiffin, Lane parlayed spending five years with USC as an assistant coach into 20 games as Oakland Raiders coach, one year at the University of Tennessee and now at one of the most storied programs in the nation. And he left those previous two coaching jobs under acrimonious circumstances.

Tags: ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »