Big 3 or the field?

So the NBA season kicks off tonight and I am sure most people will only be watching one game. The Miami Heat at the Boston Celtics. I'm not a huge basketball fan nor do I pretend to be. I pretty much only watch when it's playoff time. With the whole Lebron watch over the Summer it made me a little more intrigued to watch this season in hopes the Heat fall flat on their face. You can't convince me that the whole thing wasn't planned and then for Lebron to use a Charity event at boys and girls club in Greenwich,CT as a pr stunt was ridiculous. Why do you pick one of the richest areas in the U.S to host it? Why not host it somewhere in Cleveland or Miami? It was very clear that Lebron's mind was made up way ahead of time and he just went through the motions of visiting other teams. Anyways that is all pretty much old news, my question to everyone is who are you taking this year? The Big 3 or the field?

Some cheese with your Whine?

Enough is enough with the players crying about how the NFL is going soft and stopping them from doing their jobs. You are paid millions of dollars from the NFL to play a game to which they set the rules. Therefore you are obligated to play by their rules. If you don’t like it then please retire and leave millions of dollars on the table.(Maybe that would lower ticket prices.)This wouldn’t be an issue if players weren't so careless with their bodies and launching them at receivers. All I read over and over on Twitter is about “we are taught separate the receiver from the ball”.  The Robinson hit this past week in my opinion was a legit hard hit. The hits I am referring to are the ones when the line backer or db lowers and leads with their heads. I also understand that sometimes you aim low and the receiver tries to protect himself and lowers his body causing you to hit him high. The NFL has to take all this into consideration when making these suspensions, but please stop trying to make yourselves out to be a victim in all of this.

test

2EUSHM57CGJV

Chris Johnson owners please send all thank-you cards to ESPN..

There is a little tidbit over on PFT regarding ESPN asking the coaches of the Titans and Jags to use their time outs. What??? The airing network asking a team to use timeouts?  Apparently ESPN did not meet their network obligations for TV times outs and needed some help from the teams. So of course Jack Del Rio was happy to listen to ESPN and on a 4th down with under two minutes left C.J breaks off a 35 yarder to the house. My question is how is this allowed during a game? How can the league allow a network to influence the game? In my opinion this is similar to fixing a game.Of course this will be swept under the carpet because ESPN has the market cornered and it will not be reported on their own network.I believe that TV timeout ruin the flow of a game and should be eliminated completely. If you would like to read the full story you can check it out here.

1st and Goal "The Seat Is A Little Bit Warmer"

This is the time of the season that can make or break a coach. You can come out of the gate on fire and get a couple years added to your contract or you feel that coaching seat getting a little bit warmer. Can you feel the heat Wade Phillips? With the NFC Super Bowl favorites losing to the Titans yesterday at home, you have to wonder if Mr.Jones is starting to fill out some pink slips. In my first post of the season I pointed out that Romo shouldn't be passing 50+ times a game.Yesterday Romo was 31-46 for 406 yards 3 td's and 3 int's. The last int coming on the final drive to seal their fate. Romo's stat line could have been much worse as I seen at least 3 interceptions dropped. Romo is a good qb, but again he is not a clutch QB. This coaching staff is failing to make the changes needed to get this team going. They battled back and forth with the Titans ,there was no need to have Romo drop back 46 times. Felix Jones had only 15 carries for 109 yards.Jones is a electric player and  Dallas needs to give him the ball more and stop letting Romo throw so much.The Cowboys are a Super Bowl caliper team, but if they lose next week in Minnesota those Super Bowl vision's will start to fade and people will need to start looking for new jobs.

Another phantom hit by pitch...

Alright now we are gonna need replay for "hit by pitch". How the umpires continue to miss these is beyond me. Apparently Chase Utley thought he was going by a pitch and thought it did hit him so he trotted on down to first base.This missed call could have ended up costing the Reds the game. Yahoo has the full story here.  Either way in a post season that we should be talking about some great pitching, we are crying foul on the umpires for missing this call. To all the fans out there who gave Jeter crap about faking it (yeah I am talking to you Sox Nation) please make sure you show Mr.Utley all the same love!

For someone who likes to be private, Favre sure likes to show his privates (Allegedly)

Back in August Deadspin.com ran an item regarding allegations of Jenn Sterger, co-host of The Daily Line on Versus. Allegedly Brett Favre was nice enough to send her some photos of his lower area and left her a few voice messages back in 2008 when he was QB for the Jets. At the time Sterger  was the in-house sideline reporter for the Jets. Yesterday Deadspin released the photos and two audio messages on their site. The voice does sound a bit like Favre, but it is still not clear. Favre declined comment  when he was asked about it yesterday after practice saying "I've got my hands full with the Jets".  Without Sterger placing any charges of sexual harassment or allegations against Favre what can the league do? PFT has a good read on the story here.In the meantime, tell us what you think with our poll question above..Or if you want to skip everything and get right to the audio here it is at Deadspin.

"Start'em" Quick Fantasy Hits

Tony Romo  against The Titans   Romo looked good against Houston two weeks ago and coming off a bye I expect him to light up the score board and pass close to 300 yards with 2 td's. 

Cedric Benson against The Bucs  Carson Palmer has not looked well this season and the Bucs give up a lot of yards on the ground. Look for the Bengals to run early and a lot.Benson will break the 100 yard mark with a td.

Reggie Wayne against The Chiefs   I don’t know how he does it, but no matter what Manning finds Wayne open. With Collie in a boot this week look for Manning to Wayne combo to put up points. Wayne 85 yards and 2 td's.

"Take your base"

Yesterday was a busy sports day. The coverage all day was the blockbuster trade that sent Randy Moss back to the Minnesota Vikings. While all that was going on history was quietly being made when Roy Halladay pitched the second post season no-hitter in history and against one of the leagues best hitting teams (Reds) none the less. The only other time this happened was in Don Larsen in 1956 for the Yankees. The way Halladay is pitching do not be surprised if he does it again. Don't forget he pitched a perfect game back in May against the Marlins. My hats off to you Mr.Halladay...

 I do have one gripe and that is with major league baseball. You need to stop sandwiching a late afternoon game. People on the east coast are just getting out of work, while people on the west coast are at work. I am betting that the majority of fans missed this historic milestone because they could not watch the game. I don't have the answer on how to fix this, but something needs to be done.

Quick Hit "Moss to Minnesota"

Well it looks like Moss's run in New England is coming to an end. Everyone knows he is not happy about not being offered a contract extenstion. Reports came out late yesterday that after week one Moss's agent when to the Patriots and requested a trade. Well here we are going into week 5 and multiple outlets are reporting Moss will be traded to Minnesota for a 3rd round pick. Huge pick up for Minnesota, but you have to wonder where Moss's head will be if they do not sign him to a contract extension? More to come as all the details come out....

1st and Goal "Protect The Players"

I am tired of linebackers and secondary players taking cheap shots on defenseless wide receivers. Yes the league is cracking down by fining and penalizing the team 15 yards, but big deal. If it happens more than once it should be grounds for a suspension. T.J Ward of the Cleveland Browns yesterday laid out Shipley of the Bengal’s in the end zone. The ball was already tipped and Shipley had no chance at catching the ball. As you can see in the video below Ward did lead with his shoulder, but it was not a needed. Then to sit there and stare Shipley down as he was lying on the ground just shows how much of punk Ward really is. In his post game interview Ward said

“I hit him with my shoulder," Ward said. "They [Bengal’s] tried to yap at me, but I ignored them. I would do it again."

These types of plays are not needed with the speed of today’s game. We all love clean hard hits, but in a game where a player can barely touch a QB without picking up a flag, why can’t the league focus more on protecting all of it’s players. Instead of focusing on fining people for their end zone celebrations or now Jared Allen’s calf roping sack celebration ($15,000 fine if he does it anymore) let’s protect the players health and bring down the hammer on cheap hits.

T.J Ward's Hit On Shipley