Sweet Sassafrassy!

Here's why I'm excited right now:

In fantasy land, bad things are happening to other people's players. Of course, now that I write this and have proof of it, in print, Stephen Jackson, Marvin Harrison, and Donovan McNabb will all miss 12 games of the regular season. Bad luck aside, David is looking at injuries to Donald Driver AND Frank Gore. It is possible that LJ will NOT start the first 10 games of the season for Cuba. And, I heard that LT broke his sternum in a horrible stiff-arm summer camp for kids! HaHa! Go Stephen Jackson!

Ok, so I lied about LT, but the other stuff is true. Guys are dropping like flies and the preseason hasn't even stolen it's share of players (and it always does).

Excitement brews. August 5 is on the horizon. Watching the NFL Yearbook replays on ESPN2 is good, but only to a point. I do love, however, that wonderful voice over guy. Hearing him describe losing seasons in a positive light... well, that type of enthusiasm could probably cure diseases if directed properly.

Good day.

Culpepper Update

According to Adam Schefter of the NFL Network, the Raiders are willing to offer a one year contract to Daunte Culpepper.

The NFL Network's Adam Schefter reports the Oakland Raiders are prepared to sign Daunte Culpepper to a one-year contract -- assuming all goes well when the 30-year-old quarterback works out for the team.

Not too shocking. The Raiders need experience, and if Culpepper is healthy would be a good candidate to start the first couple games of the season for them. He either would play really well and help them win some games, or he will fail and they will turn to JaMarcus Russell, which everyone will want them to do anyway.

Introducing Some New People

We have some new writers that will be joining us. With the start of preseason and the regular season within spitting distance, Craig and I are going to need some help. So, starting sometime soon you will be seeing articles from Mike Pollard, Cuba, and Reggie. As soon as they accept the invite I sent them anyway...looking at you Cuba.

Chester Taylor carted off practice field

It's a good thing the Vikings just signed Adriane Peterson to that big contract...they might have had to pay him more if they waited.

Chester Taylor left Blakeslee Stadium on a cart this morning because of a right forearm contusion. Taylor, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season, was hit after catching a pass and, after a short period of time, appeared to be in a lot of pain.

Vikings coach Brad Childress downplayed the injury after practice, describing it as a “contusion.”

Taylor declined to comment as he departed the locker room this afternoon. He was healthy enough to ride a bicycle. He had a white elastic sleeve covering the area from his right hand to his elbow, with padding underneath. There did not appear to be a hard cast anywhere.

Here's the link to the story.

Patriots place DB Chad Scott on IR list

The New England secondary has more questions now as veteran Chad Scott was placed on the injured/reserved list on Monday because of a knee injury. "Last season, Scott played in 14 regular season games with nine starts. He made 44 tackles and had two interceptions."

Star cornerback Asante Samuel is still holding out, which for any other team would spell bad things as they head into preseason. But this is the New England Patriots. They have a track record over recent years of replacing some key players on the defense and being ok.

Culpepper works out with Raiders

The Raiders have seen enough from Daunte Culpepper that they are flying him out to California to work out with the team and see if he would be a good fit. Culpepper was released by Miami, and since then has only seen interest from Tampa Bay and Jacksonville. But with Jacksonville signing Tim Couch, and Tampa Bay already having 7 quarterbacks on the roster, nobody was sure if those teams would sign him.

Part of the reason the Raiders have brought him out to California is the hold out of the number one pick from last years draft, JaMarcus Russell.

Russell has yet to sign a contract with Oakland, and [Raiders coach Lane] Kiffin on Sunday indicated negotiations between the two sides had slowed.

Kiffin acknowledged that Russell's situation was a precursor to bringing Culpepper in for a workout.

"Sure it is," Kiffin said. "You've gotta protect your team [and] put yourselves in the best position to win and make sure that you have the right depth and competition at each spot."

With all the questions about Culpepper's health, most teams are staying far away from him. But the Raiders could use some experience at the quarterback position, even if it's doubtful Culpepper would get significant playing time there, if any.

4th and Goal, Episode 7

We are now available on iTunes! Now there is no excuse for not subscribing to the show. Just click here and then click subscribe!

This week we debut our new segment "Corrections and Rejections", tackle a long news segment, and get into a heavy round table discussion debating everything from fantasy draft pointers to racism in the NFL. Yeah, you'll have to listen to figure out how we went from one extreme to the other.

Right click here and select "Save As" to download.

My work has decided that the website where I host the files is dangerous and has been blocked, so if you subscribe to the show through iTunes or another service, don't worry that you don't have this episode yet. When I get home tonight I will get it working. But if you need your 4th and Goal fix, you should be able to download it yourself right away.

Frank Gore Breaks His Hand

Frank Gore has broken his hand and will possibly miss the preseason.

Gore was injured during a non-contact ball-handling drill, and coach Mike Nolan said he would not practice with the team for the remainder of the week. Gore will be re-evaluated next Monday, and Nolan expects him to return to practice then with a cast on his hand.

"He'll be ready for the latter part of preseason, but his participating in the preseason, we'll wait and see on that," Nolan said.

We will have to wait and see how this affects his season. Hopefully he will be able to bounce back and be 100% for the regular season. A lot of fantasy teams are going to depend on him being healthy.

Bill Walsh

Bill Walsh, who guided the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl championships and six NFC West division titles in his 10 years as head coach, has died at the age of 75.

Walsh died early Monday following a long battle with leukemia, according to Stanford University, where he served as coach and athletic director.

Bill Walsh has shaped today's NFL arguably more than any other person. He created the West Coast Offense, formed the 49er dynasty, and was the coach for some of the greatest players in the history of the NFL.

Not only did he do all of that, but his philosophy and playing style were carried on by his assistant coaches.

Even a short list of Walsh's adherents is stunning. Seifert, Mike Holmgren, Dennis Green, Sam Wyche, Ray Rhodes and Bruce Coslet all became NFL head coaches after serving on Walsh's San Francisco staffs, and Tony Dungy played for him. Most of his former assistants passed on Walsh's structures and strategies to a new generation of coaches, including Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Brian Billick, Andy Reid, Pete Carroll, Gary Kubiak, Steve Mariucci and Jeff Fisher.

That list includes 7 Super Bowl wins and 11 Super Bowl appearences, and 1 and a 1/2 NCAA National Championships.

Pretty impressive for a guy that coached for only 10 years.

Link to story.

The Forums Are Back

Suddenly the world became very dark a few days ago as our little corner of the net came crashing down. But thankfully a new day has dawned, with the arrival of the 4th and Goal forum v2.0! Make sure to check it out, register, bookmark the site, and join in the conversation. The link at the top right of this page has also been updated to bring you directly to the new site.

4th and Goal, Episode 6

This week, we let it all out. Michael Vick and his problems leads into a debate about the NBA and their recent cheating scandal...which then leads into yelling. Add to that a long news segment and you've got 4th and Goal, Episode 6.

Right click here and select "Save As" to download the show.

Tired of always downloading the show? Take the easy way out and subscribe to the podcast! Click here to find out how.

Forum Update

As you might have already noticed, our forums were deleted from the site that was hosting them, which sucks. Don't worry though, I will be looking into another site to host the forum. We've already got a couple places in mind, so it wont be too much longer before we can continue the flame wars.

In the meantime, keep checking back here. Only a couple more weeks to go before football goodness begins again.

Anybody...

::sniff sniff::
Is anybody out there?

Sports are somewhat slow, but the news about sports is popping.

Daunte Culpepper was released from the Dolphins. So much for that UCF alum. Asante Samuel (another UCF alum) will probably not see a down of action until Week 10 or later. Why are the UCF guys having trouble, damn it?

Michael Vick was indicted. Not a shocker here. You can't think you're untouchable just because you have $100 million dollars. If you beat, fight, and kill dogs... eventually someone will probably get a hold of you - especially when you are a national celebrity. It seems like the NFL needs to work on taking smarter individuals. People with morales. Something. I don't know. I'm disgusted by Michael Vick and I'm sure the Falcons owner is openly weeping day-to-day.

We had our 1st annual 4th and Goal Fantasy Draft, which was fun.

I'm not feeling fantastic about my team, but I'm not feeling bad about it either. My heavy hitters are: Stephen Jackson, Marvin Harrison, Donovan McNabb, TJ Hoozurdaddy, Andre Johnson, Cedric Benson, Antonio Gates, Adam Vinatieri, Vernon Davis, Lee Evans, Santana Moss. I know. Some of those are not heavy hitters, but still... If D-Nabb stays healthy, I could have a really good season. I'm also weak at RB with the exception of Jackson. I don't like Benson, but he's not splitting touches with Jones anymore so his 7 TDs could improve to 11 or 12, which would put him close to Rudi and he did me fine last year.

I don't know. I'm in between excited and depressed because I hate losing. Luckily, my first game of the season is against Mike (who got first pick and took LT), so it will be VERY rewarding to beat him the first week. Though, I did that last season and it did nothing for me, since he finished in second to my third. Perhaps losing is better, then...

Until someone comments or posts... I take my leave.

The Dead Zone

No, this is not a very interesting post about the popular cable television show. It is a cry out to sports! Help! Come quick, college and pro football. Save us all from the horrors of a baseball-filled SportsCenter. I can tell that the sportscasters don't want to be talking about baseball. They've run out of interesting ways to describe home runs. The metaphors all fall flat.

I know that Ichiro hit an inside the park homerun at the All-Star game. I know that Vlad Guerrero won the HR derby, but if Griffey Jr. isn't involved, I don't care. I'm tired of baseball and the season is only slightly over half over.

It is sad when I look forward to the U.S. Open tennis series as something to watch. I can't sit through regular season baseball games that hold no bearing on anything. I'll watch the playoffs (maybe). I'll watch the World Series (maybe, if no good tv is happening), but that is not until October/November. I'm bored with baseball. The constant storylines are semi-interesting, but I'm over Bonds, steroids, and overpaid pitchers.

Give me hard hits, fumbles, interceptions, QB controversies. I need it.

Thankfully, fantasy football is upon us. Semi-sweet reprieve.

We are all geniuses. We correctly predicted the outcome of Wimbeldon 2007, as if it were hard. Though, I must say, Nadal gave Federer a scare. It took five sets to put away the "young gun" and even Federer had to admit that Nadal is improving at a scary rate. The younger of the two (Nadal) is not even in his prime yet. Federer should quickly get his four more grand slam titles before Nadal starts stealing them.

The match was fantastic to watch, though I can only attest for the final set. I incorrectly set my DVR to regular NBC and refuse to watch it blurrified. So, I checked the HD channel and came in right as it was 1-1 in the fifth set.

Nadal looked tough and had Federer on the ropes for a break twice 15-40 (which is really bad for the Swiss star), but Federer pounded his way out both times and served a few aces in between to take the lead 5-3. From there, Nadal's composure was shot and the match was all but over.

A neat sidenote: Nike put on a really cool commercial with Tiger doing the voice over work all about Federer. At the end, Tiger says: "Roger Federer, 11 major titles and counting. Tiger Woods, 12 major titles and counting. Try to keep up, buddy." It was cool in the sense that we are living through an age where two men in different sports are creating new forms of greatness.

That is all.

4th and Goal Episode 4

It's up! In this episode, we talk about the Lions and their chances of winning 10 games, the Bears releasing Tank Johnson, and Craig and Pollard survive Las Vegas.

Right click here and select "Save As" to download the show!

Or if you subscribed to the show it should automatically download! Laziness at it's best. Don't forget to check out the brand new forums, and talk about the show. Hurry before it loses that new forum smell.

Edit: Internet Archive appears to be having problems this morning. Earlier this morning it couldn't find the page, so iTunes couldn't download the show. At the time I made this post, it appeared the Internet Archive was back online, and the show was being downloaded to my computer. But now Internet Archive is back down. If you need your fix of 4th and Goal and don't want to wait for the site to come back up, you can go here also and download the file to your computer. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Forum!

Get on it. The link is directly to the right of these words. Or, if this post moves down, it is at the top of the page, above our names, under the LINKS sections.

Get on there and post some crap about sports, your life, and our podcast, damn it!

I know Pollard will be pleased.

The forums are alive!

4th and Goal now has it's very own forum! Click here or on the link at the top right of the screen to go and register.

Discuss, argue, and yell about all things football, the latest podcast, or anything else.