Oh Vick...

Would people please stop defending this guy. He brings stupidity to a whole new level.

We are now learning that he failed a court mandated drug test. You know, I get that going before a judge is stressful, but really smoking mary jane is really not the way to deal with it.

On top of the fact that the judge could now take away his bail, now he is setting himself up for some more sanctions from the NFL. Then again we won't hear about it until he gets out of jail, and that's assuming he will even be able to possibly make a comeback.

But I am sure there are people who still think he is a good guy, despite the evidence that says he is not.

Revenge is sweet

Last week the Raiders were upset that the Broncos called a last second timeout, which negated their game winning field goal. After the dust settled and they lined up to kick again, Janikowski missed the next kick, and the Broncos won the game.

Well, this week, the Raiders found themselves in a similar situation. The Raiders were winning 26-24, but the Browns were lined up to kick a 40 yard field goal to win the game. At the last second, Kiffin called a time out. The Browns still snapped the ball and the kick went through the uprights, but it didn't count. On the next attempt, the kick was blocked and the Raiders won their first game of the season.

Life and Football - Sept. 20, 2007

Donovan McNabb came out and announced that he feels that black quarterbacks are under more scrutiny than white. Ironically, his timing is impeccable. Down in Jena, Louisiana, there are six young men whose lives hang upon a fulcrum of racism. Though, not according to the district attorney there. In this story, there was a tree, some shade, a couple of nooses, and a fight. Sound like 1955? 1965? It was last year. Some kids wanted to sit under a “white” tree in Jena. They asked. Yes, apparently they had to ask. They were allowed to do so, yet the next day, three nooses hung from the very tree that the three black teens had sat under. This started something. Fights ended up happening and when a white kid ended up knocked out, six black young men were charged. Heavily. There is a national protest going on, which is good, but that isn’t really enough. The poor kids already have to live in a seemingly racist town with a legal system that denies racism as a part of the situation. The DA claims he is pursuing only justice and that those responsible for their actions must pay. Attempted murder? The white kid went to a school function the night of his apparent attempted murder. That must’ve been a lame ass attempt. Sounds much more like a school fight to me. What does this have to do with Donovan McNabb and football? Well, a lot and a little. I think McNabb has some personal issues with the race thing. He doesn’t like the “running quarterback” label and clearly feels that he has a harder road to travel. He admitted that other quarterbacks take criticism, but in a different way. I’m not sure that I can agree with him, though. I know that racism exists, today, tomorrow, and the next day too. But, I can’t say that Donovan McNabb, Byron Leftwich, or even Michael Vick, pre-dog fighting, were the most criticized QBs as of late. Who takes more heat that Rex Grossman in Chicago, Eli Manning in NY? The “running QB” thing resonates, I suppose, but is Donovan taking it out of context? Maybe. Maybe not. The way race is in America today is a hell of a lot better than fifty years ago, but it’s still depressing. Depressing that an NFL quarterback can vent his frustrations and have it be about race. Depressing that some kids got into a fight at school and because they are black (speculation, but closer to valid than not), they stand trial for higher penalties than school detentions and suspensions. I don’t really know what to think, but I want to understand. I do. I want to get how there are still people who would hang a noose in a tree. I want to get how there are QBs (or just one) who bring up race issues in a league where a vast majority of skill players are black. I just want to know some things and that is life and football on September 20, 2007.

NFC East Showdown

Monday Night Football gave us a showdown between NFC East rivals, the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles. Luckily, one offense actually showed up. The Skins took the cream out of Philly’s Twinkie late Monday night by managing to put together successful offensive drives that actually led to touchdowns. This was something that Philly couldn’t muster. Donovan McNabb looked trigger-happy, rocketing passes over receivers, behind receivers, into the dirt, etc… It was brutal. The sweet irony of football hit the Eagles Monday Night. They actually out-gained the Redskins 340-337, yet still fell 20-12 in final score. The Eagle offense was only able to get David Akers into kicking range four times, not once crossing the goalline. The Redskins, conversely, scored twice, once on a throw from Jason Campbell to Chris Cooley, and the second on a Clinton Portis touchdown run. Philly’s defense didn’t look imposing and the offense was sputtering. The real problem: Philadelphia has no premier receivers. The second problem: Donovan McNabb shaved his head, which means no fro-magic for him. Without the fro-magic, I don’t trust him. So, the Eagles dropped to 0-2 on the season, getting booed heartily from the home crowd and the Redskins (yeah, it’s shocking) are 2-0 and tied for first place in the NFC East with…

The Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys have put up 82 points over the first two weeks of NFL play. Not bad. Unfortunately, they have also allowed 55 points, but victories are victories and Dallas has two of them. Tony Romo has been a fantasy god, with 6 TDs and only one INT, putting up a passer rating of 119.3. TO has lived up to his own self-proclaimed hype and started the season with 3 TDs. So, the Cowboys are shining bright in the division, what about those Giants? Eh… not so good. Deny Manning and the bunch have suffered back-to-back losses to Dallas and Green Bay. Unfortunately for them, they meet the undefeated Redskins in Week 3, so feasibly, Washington could be 3-0, leaving the Giants 0-3, with two division losses after Week 3. Fun things to look forward to for Manning, Coughlin, and the rest of the bunch, most of who are injured.

All in all, the NFC East is only a shadow of what it once was. Dallas will probably come out ahead this year, though if Washington can put together wins like they have, who knows?

4th and Goal, Episode 13

In this episode, we run through the Week 1 Scoreboard, ask if Vince Young is a goo d quarterback, and Reggie answers our questions in What's Your Fantasy? We also discuss if what the Patriots is really cheating, have a healthy dose of news topics to cover, and we pick the winners for Week 2.

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Ouch, Goodell has decided that it is not in fact, the Patriot's Day

I just saw this before leaving work. For those that haven't heard, NFL officials were notified that a member of the Patriots was video taping the Jets coaches and stealing their signals to their players.

While I personally don't see anything wrong with it (I'll explain later when I have time to actually type it up), it is against league rules to do this. The tape was submitted to the NFL for review.

According to ESPN.com, commissioner Roger Goodell was not happy.

Goodell is considering severe sanctions, including the possibility of docking the Patriots "multiple draft picks" because it is the competitive violation in the wake of a stern warning to all teams since he became commissioner, the sources said.

More on this later. The story is being reported by Chris Mortenson, who has been really hit or miss as of late. Some of his stories have been close to the actual truth, while others have been flat out wrong. So we will have to see how this plays out.

It's about time...

It looks like the Oakland Raiders and JaMarcus Russell have finally come to an agreement on their contract. Initial reports have the contract worth at least $31 million in guaranteed money, and the entire contract could be worth close to $68 million.

At this point, the signing doesn't really matter. Russell has blown his chances of playing this year. Unless McCown and Culpepper are absolutely awful during the season, Russell will be sitting on the bench. But that is probably a good thing for him in the long run. He can learn under the two quarterbacks, learn Kiffin's system, and get a year of practice and a full training camp under his belt before he has to take the reigns of the franchise. The only significant affect this will have on the team is whether or not they keep four quarterbacks. They will have Josh McCown, Daunte Culpepper, Andrew Walter, and now JaMarcus Russell.

See ya later Walter.

The interesting thing about this is the matter of guaranteed money. Each year, the player before gets more than the player drafted in the same spot the year before. Mario Williams got $26.5 million guaranteed. Alex Smith received $24 million the year before that. Next year we'll probably be looking at $34-$36 million just in guaranteed money. This increase in money can't continue for unproven rookies.

Sooner or later, a team is going to make a stand. Some thought it was the Raiders this year, but clearly it was not. I would love to know the reasons on why this contract wasn't hammered out months ago, but I doubt we will ever get that information. Regardless, whether they have to wait until a new CBA is agreed upon, or a team just decides it isn't worth it to give that much money to a kid, something is going to happen in the next few years.

AFC East Week 1

Miami
Miami Lost in overtime to the Washington Redskins on a Field goal. Miami played a decent game, considering all the questions on offense and a change in coaching staff. Miami did suffer a major loss on their defensive team in Saftey Yeremiah Bell who is now out for the season with an Achilles tear.

New England
The Patriots started the year off right by not only winning, but by putting a hurting on the division rival New York Jets. Randy Moss is apparently good despite any loss of speed that might have occurred in his tenure at Oakland, and by good I mean 183 yards and a TD, which is actually great. This leads me to believe that Oakland really is that bad. Wes Welker also had a nice performance, with a touchdown of his own to start off the season. And if the Pat’s didn’t need anymore help…how about a 108 yard NFL record run back by Ellis Hobbs….Nice!

New York
Well if one team wins the other has to lose, as was the case for the Jets. However, if your going to lose then why not make it look real bad, which they had no trouble doing. The Jets tried to get in Brady’s face unfortunately for them the Pat’s acquired a bunch of receiving talent this off season which allowed Tom to pick apart the defense at will. The Jets attempted to run the ball, however Mike Vrabel had something to say about that. As if defeat wasn’t bad enough, starting QB Chad Pennington went down with an ankle injury in the 3rd quarter although he did come back into the game to lead a touchdown drive before coming out again.

As a side note, the fans in attendance at the game made the classless decision to cheer when Chad Pennington was hurt, because they don’t like him. This might have come as a shock to some, but not me. As an avid Dolphins fan, I know just how bad Jets fans are and really expected nothing less. Horrible!

Buffalo
In what has to be the saddest thing to happen in a long time Bills Second TE Kevin Everett Had a spinal injury one the 3rd quarter kickoff. Reports now say that it is likely he will be paralyzed for the rest of his life.
The Bills lost a close game in which their defense was able to give Jay Cutler headaches throughout the game. One bright spot was Marshawn Lynch RB rookie had a great 1st career game for the Bills with 90 yards and 1 TD. The other bright spot on the day was a 74 yard punt return by Roscoe Parrish.

Who I hate the most...this week

Where do I begin….hmmm how about the worst referee in the NFL. His name you ask? STEVE FREEMAN #133 back line judge in last night’s Baltimore vs. Bengals game.

Why is he the worst judge in the NFL? Well…good old Steve decided that Todd Heap committed Offensive pass interference while catching a touchdown pass in the closing seconds of last night’s game. Now the only problem with that call was that offensive pass interference never happened. If pass interference happened, it was defensive, as the DB had Heap’s shirt in his hands while he was trying to get to the ball. Apparently, Steve Freeman was seeing things last night…..my unofficial guess as to why he saw something that didn’t happen is crack, stay tuned for more on that.

Second on my list is Brian Billick. Reason is that he decided to go away from the same play calling that has served him well over these years. There were many occasions when the Ravens should have run the football, instead they tried to pass. Now if their running game was not working I would understand, but when Willis is averaging over 4 yards a carry and you have a 3rd & 1 situation it just doesn’t make sense not to run. Especially on the goal line with the game on the line!!!....horrible!

Third is Todd Heap. Now I give him half a pass due to him, and subsequently me, being robbed of a touchdown in the 4th quarter. However, he did drop a pass in the numbers, which was intercepted to end the game…..and insure that I did not win in fantasy this week…..crap!

Kiffin will likely keep McCown as starter for Week 2

Despite chants of "Daunte" from the home crowd Sunday, Josh McCown will likely be the starter in Week 2 when the Raiders play Denver.

McCown finished ok after leading the team on three straight touchdown drives to briefly take the lead at 21-20 late in the game. He finished 30 of 40 for 313 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He also was sacked 3 times and fumbled three times as well, but recovered all of the fumbles.

Buffalo Bills player in ICU after four hour surgery

Bills tight end Kevin Everett is sedated and is in the ICU at Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital after being injured during a special teams play against the Broncos Sunday. While making the tackle, Everett slammed his head against the other players shoulder. Everett dropped to the ground, and did not move again.

Trainers and team doctors worked on him for several minutes on the field, before bringing an ambulance out on the field and transporting him to the hospital.

He will be sedated for the next 24-48 hours. Until then the doctors wont be able to know if he is paralyzed, or how severely he is paralyzed.

Giants catch the injury bug in loss to the Cowboys

Eli Manning shockingly looked good in their loss to the Cowboys Sunday night. I'm sure it's easier when you have Plaxico Burress running wild in the Cowboys secondary, catching three touchdowns on the night. But still, Eli did make the throws.

That was about the only positive thing to come out of that game. They lost to their division rivals, and their defense looked awful, giving up four touchdown passes and two touchdowns on the ground also.

But they also suffered from injuries to key players. Brandon Jacobs, Eli Manning, and Osi Umenyiora all left the game early and did not finish. Jacobs and Umenyiora injured their knees, but there is no word yet on how seriously they were injured. Manning apparently bruised his right shoulder on a failed two point conversion. After throwing another TD pass to Burress, he said it tightened up and they didn't want to risk him getting hurt.

AFC vs NFC

While it's early yet, it looks like the AFC is much stronger than the NFC right now. The two teams many consider to be the top teams in the NFC, the Saints and Bears, were crushed when they played the Colts and Chargers in Week 1.

The Saints offense looked rusty and out of sync. Their defense was never on the television, because Harrison and Wayne were so open on every single play that the cameras couldn't zoom out far enough where we could see a Saint defender.

The Bears looked exactly like they did last year, a dominant defense with a hit or miss offense. The Bears defense shut down the best running back in the game, limiting him to 25 yards on 17 carries. Despite this, LT still managed to score the 2 touchdowns in the game. But it was good enough to win, since the Bears offense couldn't move the ball, and only scored 3 points.

Still, it's early in the season. For the sake of good football this year, I hope that they either play better or are nowhere close to being the best teams in the NFC. Because if they are, anybody who is good enough to make the playoffs in the AFC should be able to beat them without breaking a sweat.

Things not looking good in Tampa Bay

Tampa worked during the offseason to bring in some new quarterbacks to bring life back to their pathetic offense from last year. At one point, there were 7 quarterbacks on the roster during preseason.

Despite the so called competition, Jeff Garcia was given the job fairly early. Unfortunately for him, he still had to throw to the Bucs receivers, and stand behind that shoddy offensive line.

Garcia, trying to make something happen with his feet, got hit in the third quarter, and had to sit out until midway through the fourth quarter. Even worse for Bucs fans though, was that Cadillac Williams was also knocked out of the game in the third quarter, but he didn't return. He went to the locker room, and is now questionable for next week with a cracked rib.

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I Don't Understand

Why, Jaguars front office? Why?

Why did you start Leftwich in your preseason games, giving him the first team snaps and then cut him, pushing David Garrard into a starting job that he may or may not be ready for?

Why did you screw all of those fantasy owners who begrudgingly took Leftwich in a late round as a back-up? They expected him to have Matt Jones, Reggie Williams, MoJo, and Marcedes Lewis to throw to. Now, he might not even start.

'Tis a sad day, Byron, when your once lofty status (Marshall days, of course) have been reduced to being cut by the Other Large Black Cats. Damn. I pretty much feel bad for him, though. He was never really that impressive, but didn't we always want him to be? I feel like "we" did, though I'm not really certain why.

Well, the Jags went 3-1 in the preseason and Indy only went 1-3, so clearly that AFC South is David Garrard's for the picking. HaHaHaHa, preseason is great. Thursday can't come quick enough.

Get ready, Quinn Gray, you'll be in for Garrard as soon as he throws enough picks in a row.

Tiki is a Crap-Head

Why does this guy enjoy making the Giants worse by leaking news that undermines their locker room? As if the Giants don't have enough problems... this year, they have to now deal with the fact that Tiki would've been back if not for Tom Coughlin. Well, who must be on the hot seat next to Del Rio this year? Coughlin. If the owners read that, Coughlin is probably already fired. Why? Because Tiki was one of the best producing backs in the past three years. He topped several RB categories the past 3 seasons and is now blaming the coach for his departure.

See you later, Tommy. But, still. This is ridiculous. Perhaps the Giants could have won another game or two, done better in the playoffs, or actually had a team unit if Tiki had not announced his retirement mid season.

Is this guy the most ME-ME-ME-Look at me, that we've ever seen? No, but he is right now. Hell, he's worse than TO who is actually commending his QB and coach these days. Twilight zone-ish, yes, but progressive for the formerly volatile WR.

Tiki is the new league donkey. I'm going to hate watching him on TV knowing that he is spoiling my Dad's favorite team from the inside out. Go Giants, in honor of Barry!

Draft TO

TO thinks you should draft TO for your fantasy team. When? Top 3. Of course. TO is awesome. I watched TO talk about TO on Jimmy Kimmel last night and at least he isn't a complete douchebag. Jimmy made fun of the open letter that TO did write on ESPN.com to all fantasy owners, but embellished slightly.

TO thinks you should also draft Tony Romo, mind you, so with that pick, you'll probably get at least 10 TDs. Why? Because TO will probably have at least 10 TDs this year. Last year, he registered 13 TDs and must have dropped at least 6 TD passes and tens of other passes that should have been completed. Yet, he is still a premier WR, so go ahead and draft him.

TO says so.

Kevin Jones keeps off the PUP list

Detroit Lions running back Kevin Jones has worked his way off the physically unable to perform. It was originally thought that the Lions were going to put him on the PUP list, which meant he would be unavailable for the first six weeks of the season. But the Lions took him off the list Saturday and added him to the teams 53 man roster.

But that doesn't mean Jones will be able to start and play right away. Jones is not sure when he will be able to play, but it is not likely for him to make an appearance in Week 1.

If you are a Lions fan looking for good news, you might want to keep looking. It's not even guaranteed that Jones will make it back before the six weeks he would have missed had he remained on the PUP list.

Jones said Monday at his first practice of the season that getting back before the Lions' sixth game Oct. 21 against Tampa Bay would be a bonus.

"I want to definitely be back before six (games)," he said. "But I can start practicing now and take it day by day."

Jones is still feeling the effects of a broken foot he suffered last season. Even though it's not sure exactly when he'll be back, the team is at least hopeful he will be able to play before six weeks are up.

The Great Fall

Well I can't say I was surprised to see michigan fall out of the top 25. Of course I didn't really think they would punish them that bad for a loss to the best 2nd rate team to ever play the game. Only time will tell if they can get back on track to salvage the season. However, a loss like this might only cause them to lose foucus on the rest of the season and become a trivia answer on a sports show...

"What team had the greatest collapse of all time?" As of right now for me it's Michigan

4th and Goal, Episode 11

The last week before the NFL regular season begins! It's also the first night of college football. So, to celebrate, we begin our NFL Week 1 picks. We also have a special college football themed round table discussion, where the guys try to convince Mike why he should care about college football, and the dreaded playoff debate.

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Broncos sign Simeon Rice

The Broncos announced Sunday that they have signed defensive end Simeon Rice to a 1 year, $3 million deal.

Rice, statistically, has been one of the best defensive ends in history. He's 13th in NFL history in career sacks. He needs just 10 more sacks to bust the top 10, and if he plays a couple more years could end up in the top 5.

Rice should provide a boost to that defensive line. They've lost some veteran players since last season. They got rid of Gerrard Warren and Jimmy Kennedy, and lost Ebenezer Ekuban to a season ending injury.

NFL announces some suspensions to start the season

The Patriots will be without strong safety Rodney Harrison for the first four games of the regular season. Harrison is being suspended for violating the NFL substance abuse policy. He admits to taking HGH to help recover from injuries, but claims he never took steroids.

Either way, he took a banned substance.

The other somewhat surprising suspension is that of Cowboys quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson, who will be suspended for five games and fined $100,000.

I have no problem suspending players for taking steroids and HGH, but going that hard after a coach doesn't seem right. Wilson claims that he took HGH to improve his quality of life. He has suffered from diabetes for more than 20 years. Personally, assuming he is telling the truth, I have nothing wrong with that.

But, technically Wilson did break the rules. The NFL states that the substance abuse policy extends to all employees of the league and of the teams. It just seems stupid for a coach to be punished more severely than a player. Especially if you take into consideration his claims that it improves his quality of life.

Didn't see this one coming...

The Jaguars announced Friday that they will be cutting their starting quarterback Byron Leftwich when they cut their list of players down to 53.

Wow.

Back in February, head coach Jack Del Rio announced Leftwich would be the starter. And every day since then, Del Rio has said the same thing. Until now.

It's not that I think Leftwich is a great quarterback. His mechanics are awful. I can make a sandwich in the time it takes him to throw a pass. He is severely limited when it comes to scrambling and moving around in the pocket. His decision making is suspect, and to top it off he is injury prone. Leftwich has yet to play a full season in the NFL since he was drafted.

But he seems to have been the only quarterback in that city to have some success under center. Instead, David Garrard will get the nod.

The interesting part about this is the timing. There were little to no trade talks involving Leftwich, or indication that he was in danger of losing his starting job, let alone roster spot. And he wasn't released until hours before the rest of the teams in the league had to make their final cuts. So he wont have any time to go and try to win a spot for another team.

Now, Leftwich will have to wait and see what happens. If a quarterback gets injured in the first week or two of the season, Leftwich could be a good guy to bring in and lead the team until that quarterback is back. Or, more likely, if certain quarterbacks struggle, teams could sign him and hope he can provide a shot in the arm for their offense.

The most likely place I see him going is Atlanta. Even so, Leftwich will have to move in and learn a new system quickly if he is to get some playing time this year.

There have been rumors that Jack Del Rio is on the chopping block this year, and that he is a leading candidate to lose his job. I didn't believe any of those rumors, until now. He firmly strapped himself in to the hot seat with this move, in my opinion. If Garrard and the rest of the offense comes out and struggles early, Del Rio might not even last the season.

Eagles backup QB has surgery to repair broken hand

Philadelphia backup quarterback A.J. Feeley suffered a broken hand Thursday night in their preseason game against the Jets. He underwent surgery Friday to help the damage.

The injury wasn't severe. Feeley claims he played an entire series with it. Luckily for him, the injury came to his non throwing hand.

He should be ready to go when McNabb gets injured and is lost for the season in week 8.

Simeon Rice could find new home soon

Simeon Rice was released weeks ago by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Many thought it was a vicious move on the Bucs part. He had put up huge numbers for them for years, and then released him with no warning at the start of training camp.

Since then he has bounced around the league, visiting with different teams and trying to find a new team. The search could be finished soon. The search is down to two teams, the Denver Broncos and the St. Louis Rams. But Rice claims that the Broncos are in the lead.

"The Broncos are better than 50-50," Rice said. "They're like 55-45, maybe 60-40. Things are leaning their way. They're classy, man. All class. I want to knock on wood, but I feel like this is the place. I feel like this is a team that will challenge for the Super Bowl and create a Camelot type of experience."

The Broncos have a great secondary, but lack in depth up front on defense. Even an old Rice could help to fill some holes and give a boost to the defense.

Kiffin makes decision in quarterback battle

But, he's not telling anybody.

Kiffin told reporters in a conference call Friday afternoon that he "is prepared" to inform the two quarterbacks fighting for the starting job, Daunte Culpepper and Josh McCown, which one will start against the Lions. But Kiffin wont tell anybody else yet. And he possibly might hold out that information until the day before the game.

Steelers trade a conditional pick for Allen Rossum

The Steelers needed help in the return department. Willie Reid didn't pan out as well as an NFL returner as he did at Florida State. So the Steelers went elsewhere, and elsewhere is Atlanta. I guess Mike Tomlin heard the rumor that the Atlanta area is purging itself of talent. The Steelers traded a conditional pick for Alan Rossum, who made the Pro Bowl as a returner 3 years ago. A good move for the Steelers. The pick will most likely turn out to be a 5th rounder.