January 2012
61 posts
Rounding Up Giants Media Day
The Giants polished off the media day festivities with another compelling hour of sound bites and lasting images. Unlike how Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Bill Belichick hogged the spotlight earlier in the day for New England, the Giants attracted a relatively balanced audience for many of their podium players.
The line and player that we’ll be talking about for the rest of the week was...
Rounding Up Patriots Media Day
There’s more than a lot to catch up on from this morning, so let’s get right to it.
The Patriots kicked off media day, and unsurprisingly, everyone wanted a piece of three people: Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowksi, and Bill Belichick – in that order.
The answer everyone is after seems to have come further into focus, as Gronk announced he will no longer wear a walking boot. That, on top of...
Setting the Table for Media Day
Media day is upon us, and everything goes when media members from around the globe convene to pepper the Super Bowl participants with questions ranging from conventional to curious.
The schedule of the proceedings looks like this:
10:00 AM: The Patriots will hold court for the first hour of the day, and 17 players (plus head coach Bill Belichick) have been designated podium worthy. Here’s a...
Tuck and Rolle Speak
No athletes get more practice with the media than New Yorkers, so a few of them are bound to become quotable. Two players who can flex some media muscle are DE Justin Tuck and S Antrel Rolle, both of whom took the mic upon the Giants’ arrival to Indianapolis on Monday afternoon.
Neither was short on words, nor confidence in their own team and respect for their opponent. Here are a few highlights...
The Price Of Dependability
It’s hard to fathom now, but once upon a time Bill Belichick was publicly lambasted for parting ways with second and seventh round draft choices to acquire little-known WR Wes Welker from the Dolphins, only to sign him to a five-year contract valued in the neighborhood of $35 million.
552 catches, 4 All-Pro selections and 64 Patriots’ regular season victories later, Belichick is...
Gronk Sits, Vollmer Progressing
Amongst the stories you can be sure won’t go away this week is the health and impending game-status of Patriots TE Rob Gronkowksi. The Patriots held practice on Monday – in full pads – but Gronk was a no-go. We’ll stick with pure speculation until the official injury report is dished out later in the week (at which point we’ll simply continue to speculate), but for now it would appear the second...
Bill Belichick Monday Press Conference Recap
Media members all over Indianapolis are starting to wonder if there’s something in the air, as for the second consecutive day, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick took the podium in front of a packed-house and delivered an engaging, insightful and at-times humorous press conference, laced with coaching anecdotes.
Besides Belichick’s atypical demeanor, other highlights from Belichick...
Monday Morning Super Bowl Check-In
Little exists in the way of morale victories leading up to the Super Bowl, but score a logistical win for the Patriots’ football operation brain trust.
The Patriots held a raucous send off rally at Gillette Stadium on Sunday (in front of some 25,000 odd fans) before the wheels went up from Providence Airport. The decision to leave Sunday affords the Patriots an extra night in Indianapolis, and...
Bears Hire Emery
The Chicago Bears have decided on their replacement for longtime general manager Jerry Angelo, and its Phil Emery, who most recently served as the director of college scouting for the Chiefs.
Emery edged out Jason Licht of the Patriots for the job, and inherits a team who struggled through the second half of an injury-riddled season in 2011. The task for Emery includes beefing up an...
Breaking Down the Patriots' Secondary and Giants'...
Earlier this week, we noted the match-up that will likely dictate the outcome of Super Bowl XLVI: the Patriots offensive line versus the Giants defensive front.
The Giants pursue quarterbacks like sharks after blood, and that was the main ingredient in their Week 9 24-20 defeat over the Patriots at Gillette Stadium. The Pats’ O-Line looks game for the rematch next Sunday, at...
Gronk Has High-Ankle Sprain
I’m not a doctor – nor do I play one on television – but it’s apparent that Patriots’ TE Rob Gronkowsk is ailing.
Such was evident after not participating in the Patriots’ Thursday practice, and further confirmed by his father Gordie, who told WIVB in New York that his son has a high-ankle sprain. The injury was suffered on a forceful tackle by Ravens S Bernard Pollard in the...
Bears Narrow GM List to Two
A bit of news from the Midwest, where it appears the Chicago Bears are closing in on a new general manager to replace Jerry Angelo, who was axed shortly after the regular season concluded.
Jason Licht, the Patriots director of pro personnel, and Phil Emery, the Chiefs director of college scouting, have emerged as the finalists, according to the Bears website.
...
Colts Need To Keep It In The Family
Part of the education any NFL rookie receives even before he steps foot on the field is what to say (and by the same token what not to say) on the record.
“Even though Matt Hasselbeck is the veteran and played well last year, Jake Locker is the best quarterback to lead this team.”
Not gonna fly, young man.
No insinuations about where players stand...
Bucs Hire Schiano
Chip Kelly had six million reasons to leave his post at the University of Oregon to take the Buccaneers head coaching gig, but didn’t.
No word yet on whether the allure was quite as rich for Greg Schiano – the now former Rutgers football coach – and the man picked to fill the only open head coaching job in the NFL.
Schiano signed a five-year deal to take over as...
Goodell Re-Ups
NFL Commisioner Roger Goodell has received a contract extension to keep him on board through the 2018 season, according to multiple reports today.
The news is positive for both sides, as Goodell has solidified the leadership atop the NFL landscape, and navigated the NFL through the recent lockout.
Goodell is in many ways the face of a league that has soared to popularity in a way it likely never...
The Height of "The Heights"
It was a lonely year at “The Heights” of Chestnut Hill, site of the Boston College football stadium, where the Eagles won just two of their six home tries in 2011.
One has to suppose that makes sense for the school that will be best represented on Super Bowl Sunday, right?
Uh, not quite.
2011’s 4-8 campaign notwithstanding, Boston College’s history and tradition will shine through next Sunday...
Dennis Allen: The New Leader of Silver and Black...
The Oakland Raiders have reportedly completed their head coaching search, and for once they seem to have done so with a coherent plan followed from start to finish.
Dennis Allen, the former Denver Broncos defensive coordinator, will replace Hue Jackson, and although the move is one met with varying degrees of skepticism, new GM Reggie McKenzie followed a plan he seemed to have formulated not long...
Hey, @JimIrsay !
Colorful Indianapolis Colts Owner Jim Irsay has a knack for making headlines in 140 characters or less, and he’s up to his old tricks again, as he’s taken to Twitter to announce a contest for fans to win two Super Bowl tickets to the game to be played in his franchise’s stadium.
The hook? All you have you to do is correctly guess whom he’ll name as his new head coach, an event that appears likely...
The Key to Super Bowl XLVI
A typical workweek for an NFL head coach involves somewhere in the range of dozens of hours of film study, coupled with chunks of time spent on the field, speaking to the media, operating the team schedule, and not much time asleep.
Preparing for the Super Bowl only ramps up each facet of said preparation, and rest assured that both Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick will practically be breathing...
Indianapolis: The Host With The Most?
A recent study by FMY research listed the top 50 most desirable destination cities in the United States, and nowhere to be found was Indianapolis.
Fortunately, for attendees of the festivities surrounding and leading up to Super Bowl XLVI – to be held in the house of Peyton – it’s not just sun, shopping and zest that adds up to a quality Super Bowl host city.
Sure we all love a mid-winter hiatus...
Kickoff Thoughts For Super Bowl XLVI
Others will argue robust passing totals as the theme of the 2011-2012 NFL season, but I’m not buying it.
Divine intervention, baby.
From Tebow to Tynes, one has to wonder if the Man above spent the fall toggling his NFL joystick, preparing football fans for the rematch they’ve all awaited.
Just thirteen days from now, the New England Patriots and New York Giants will battle for Lombardi glory in...
Flacco Takes Flight
As the dust continues to settle on the end of the 2011 season for the Baltimore Ravens (how unsettling must that be?), one man can look back in defeat and say, “I told you so.”
QB Joe Flacco has long served as the easiest purple bird to critique, ripe for verbal jabs following each of his often-average outings.
Flacco hasn’t exactly taken to the harshness – he spent as much time behind the...
The Leader Of Moments
Throughout the otherwise dull hallways of Patriots’ headquarters in Foxboro, MA, moments are captured by wall-bound images – the kind of indelible moments that validate endless preparation and hours spent studying the next opponent to cross New England’s path.
The images are laced with incentive for Patriots players – do your part, earn a spot on the wall. It’s a rare sign of individual reward in...
Championship Weekend Predictions
We punted on extensive game previews for Championship Weekend in favor of comprehensive coverage of all things NFL this week, but you didn’t really thing we would keep our mouth shut on a few predictions, did you?
Nope.
As the clock ticks on the countdown to Sunday at 3:00 PM ET, we’ve narrowed our focus on the Final Four of Football, and it’s time to make a case for two teams to march on to...
Rams to Host London Games for Next 3 Years
The St. Louis Rams have announced today that they will play “host” in each of the next three seasons to the NFL’s annual London game, starting with a 2012 match-up against the New England Patriots.
The news is important for a Rams franchise in the middle of organization-wide change, but not necessarily entirely positive. Sure the Rams will be afforded brand expansion opportunities overseas for...
On Ed Reed and Joe Flacco
Earlier this week, Ravens S Ed Reed took to the public forum to call out his QB, Joe Flacco, for poor play in last weekend’s 20-13 victory over the Houston Texans.
Reed assessed that Flacco needs to be better this weekend in New England, and suggested that Flacco had been “rattled” by the Texans.
The nature of Reed’s comments is largely laced in veracity, but that isn’t why so much attention has...
Championship Formula: Offense or Defense?
For some, the age-old debate of choice is whether it’s the peanut butter or the jelly that makes the sandwich, while others clash on whether or not the Electoral College accomplishes anything.
For those of us that run in football circles, we spend time trying to decipher if defense or offense wins championships. Rewind through champions past and you’ll find the 1985 Chicago Bears, the greatest...
Thoughts From The Field Update
All,
I wanted to send out an update about my blog, specifically as it pertains to some of my other endeavors.
Recently, I was hired to be a Regional News Desk Writer for SBNation.com, one of the fastest growing sports websites and a site jam-packed with content for any sports fan. I’d suggest taking a read, and you can keep your eyes out for my stuff on the Boston, Philadelphia and New...
Tomlinson Speaks
LaDainian Tomlinson, whose contract with the New York Jets is set to expire in March, has chimed in on the locker room saga involving QB Mark Sanchez and WR Santonio Holmes.
Tomlinson sat down last night for an interview on Showtime’s Inside the NFL, and delivered a candid, open, and honest assessment of the QB-WR relationship (amongst other things), and it paints a nasty picture:
“It is as bad...
NFL News and Notes: January 18th, 2012
Championship Sunday has inched closer, but to move your week along and deliver you your NFL daily fix, here are Wednesday’s headlines:
· NFL insider Adam Schefter Rob Lowe has tweeted some big, big news about a star quarterback who plays in his home state. Said quarterback’s father has since come out and flatly denied Lowe’s report.
· Schefter did have the break on this story, and he...
Quick Pitch: Rangers Sing Yu Darvish
The Rangers and Japanese phenom Yu Darvish came to an agreement just prior to today’s 5 PM ET deadline. The deal is for six years and somewhere around $60MM, with incentive bonuses and no deferred money.
Essentially the Rangers have paid around $111 MM for a player who has never thrown a pitch in the Major Leagues. By shelling out this type of money, Nolan Ryan, Jon Daniels and the rest of...
Hernandez, Brady Update for the Patriots
Virtually everything went right for the New England Patriots in their 45-10 romp against the Denver Broncos in Saturday night’s AFC Divisional Round game, but cause for concern arose when star TE Aaron Hernandez left the game with what appeared to be a head injury.
As is customary in Foxboro, the Patriots took a tight lip approach in regards to revealing information about Hernandez’s status, but...
Ranking the Head Coaches Heading Into Championship...
Earlier today, I dished on each of the remaining offenses and defenses in the NFL playoffs, ranking them based on a combination of how they are playing now and how they performed during the regular season.
It’s time for part two of our rankings, and this time I’ll take a stab at establishing a head coach hierarchy. Ranking coaches is more subjective than offenses or defenses, and factors such as...
NFL Coaching Searches
As four NFL teams continue to prepare for the biggest game of their season, several others are working to fill out vacant coaching spots left by firings or departures.
In Oakland, yet another candidate to fill their head coaching position has been added to a list that has grown to at least six, and it’s recently promoted Bears offensive coordinator Mike Tice.
Tice, the former Vikings head coach...
Luck Chooses His Agent
Andrew Luck, the consensus top prospect for the 2012 NFL Draft, has made a decision of whom will represent him as his agent, and it comes with a familial tie.
Will Wilson, a former Major League Soccer executive and Luck’s uncle, will serve as the former Stanford QB’s agent and has been hired by the Wasserman Media Group as its executive vice president of football.
Luck is the first and only...
Ranking the Offenses and Defenses for Championship...
When you whittle the field of NFL teams down from thirty-two to four, it means one thing: four exceptional teams remain in play for the Lombardi Trophy. Odds makers have handicapped this weekend’s match-ups and projected the likelihood of each remaining team winning the Super Bowl, and no clear favorite or long shot has emerged.
The Patriots, Ravens, 49ers and Giants have come a long way since...
NFL News and Notes From Championship Weekend...
Here’s a look at the noteworthy business from Championship Weekend Monday:
· The Falcons filled their vacant defensive coordinator position by hiring former Miami defensive coordinator Mike Nolan. Nolan replaces Brian VanGorder, who bolted to Auburn to take the same position.
· Meanwhile, despite not having a head coach (with the recent firing of Jim Caldwell), the Colts have reportedly...
Jim Caldwell Fired By The Indianapolis Colts
Recently appointed Colts General Manager Ryan Grigson has made his first major move in office, firing head coach Jim Caldwell after finishing with a league-worst 2-14 record.
The move was widely presumed in football circles, as Grigson works to rebuild a franchise downtrodden after a dismal season played without QB Peyton Manning. Manning sat out 2011 with a neck injury, and the prognosis for his...
Mailbag: On Zone and Man Defense
Q: My question basically comes down to this: why do teams play zone defense against offenses that have tight ends like Gronkowski, Finley, Graham, etc. that already pose huge match-up problems? Doesn’t that let the offenses choose to some degree which defenders they want to match them up against by, for example, sending their routes past the linebackers and into the secondary if they want...
New York Governor Calls For In-State Funding to...
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is calling for in-state funding to help ensure that the Buffalo Bills – once amongst the proudest of NFL franchises – will remain in their current habitat of Western New York.
The Bills reside on a short-list of NFL teams discussed as potentials displacers, which also includes the Jaguars, Chargers, Rams and Vikings. The most logical – and certainly most discussed –...
Miami Reportedly Pursues Zimmer
After striking out on former Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher to fill their vacant head coaching positioning, the Miami Dolphins appeared to have honed in on Mike Zimmer.
Zimmer is the current defense coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals, and a hot coaching commodity after another stellar year for the Bengals D in 2011. The Bengals finished 7th overall defensively this season, and did so...
Assistant Spotlight
You’ll hear a lot about the remaining NFL head coaches in the coming week, and should the 49ers and Ravens advance to the Super Bowl, America will be inundated with Harbaugh Brothers coverage, but for now let’s take a look at four assistant coaches making a difference this post-season:
Brad Seely, Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator, San Francisco 49ers:
Seely joined Jim Harbaugh’s...
Championship Game Lines
The lines have opened for this weekend’s AFC and NFC Championship games, and although they’re subject to change, here’s a quick hit analysis on the opening numbers.
Baltimore (+7.5) At New England, (O/U 50):
No surprise here that the Patriots stand as the favorites, considering they’re the home team and higher seed. Additionally, the Patriots are fresh off a steamrolling of the Broncos, and QB...
Fisher Eyes His Coordinators
Tomorrow afternoon, the St. Louis Rams will officially announce Jeff Fisher as their new head coach, replacing the ousted Steve Spagnuolo.
The hire of Fisher brings immediate veteran coaching presence to St. Louis, and speculation is already abounding as to whom Fisher will tab to round out his staff.
It looks as though current Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams – one of Fisher’s...
Elway: Tebow "Earns" the Starting Nod for 2012
Just because Denver’s season is over, QB Tim Tebow still hasn’t stopped making headlines.
On Monday, two days after the Broncos were trounced in Foxboro versus the Patriots, Broncos’ Executive VP of Football Operations John Elway declared that Tebow had earned the right to be the starting QB for the franchise heading into 2012.
The news isn’t exactly a surprise, as the only competition for...
Mike Martz Retires
Mike Martz – the lightning rod coach who most recently coordinated the Chicago Bears’ offense – will reportedly retire from coaching.
Most will remember Martz as the architect and mastermind of the “Greatest Show on Turf,” the St. Louis Rams offense from the late nineties through the early part of this century. Martz took over as the head coach of the Rams in 2000, when Dick Vermeil resigned...
The Other 24
For twenty-four teams, the off-season started far sooner that they had once wished. Just eight teams remain in the NFL playoffs, and four more will head home this weekend to begin preparations for the 2012 NFL season.
It’s a humbling reality for franchises that put countless hours of work into constructing the right blend of fifty-three players for their roster, coupled with a coaching staff...
NFC Divisional Round Preview: Green Bay (1) Vs....
(4) New York Giants At (1) Green Bay Packers, 4:30 PM, Sunday
The playoff portion of the Green Bay Packers’ title defense commences on Sunday, but it wont be without a collective heavy heart. Michael Philbin, the 21-year old son of Green Bay offensive coordinator Joe Philbin, was found dead on Monday in a river near the campus of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.
The tragedy is a sobering...
AFC Divisional Round Preview: Baltimore (2) Vs....
(3) Houston Texans At (2) Baltimore Ravens, 1:00 PM, Sunday
In today’s world of intoxicating media coverage, it’s shocking how little attention the match-up between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans is receiving leading up to it.
Perhaps it’s the fact that Houston is down to their third string quarterback, or that some don’t see the Ravens’ offense fit to make a deep playoff run. More...
AFC Divisional Round Preview: New England (1) Vs....
(4) Denver Broncos At (1) New England Patriots, 8:00 PM, Saturday
Most church-goers head to mass on Sunday mornings, but I suspect Foxboro will have the feeling of divine intervention on Saturday night when the Broncos travel to New England to take on the Patriots.
Tim Tebow, the wildly dramatic and highly spiritual quarterback for the Broncos, has a shot at redemption against the Patriots, who...
