'THE EDGE' (COMING SOON!!) |
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FIGHT ON - SC CHEERLEADER CHEERS UCLA PAT TIPS APPRECIATED!!! |
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PUT HER ON ESPN ALREADY!!!  THE ROAD TO THE 2007 NFL DRAFT STARTS NOW!!! TOP 25 QUARTERBACKS/RUNNING BACKS AVAILABLE FOR NEXT APRIL'S DRAFT AVAILABLE NOW ON KACSPORTS NFL DRAFT PAGE |
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TOP STORIES - DECEMBER 7, 2006 Get your NFL football tickets now at TickCo. They have all team Cardinals tickets, Cowboys tickets, Packers tickets, Colts tickets, Patriots tickets, Titans tickets and more. Get your Super Bowl tickets here! NEW BLOGS!!! ARTHUR'S NOT-SO BLANK CHECK, KARMA COMES BACK TO BITE ELI MANNING, AND BCS ACTUALLY GETS IT RIGHT... NEED WIN TO MAKE PLAYOFFS???? Week 14 fantasy rankings are here. MAKE THIS YOUR BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!! I've delivered the past two weeks with FIVE STONE-COLD MEGA-LOCKS, compiling a 4-0-1 record. Can you afford to go to the window without my info any longer??? Get all my Week 14 NFL picks in DEGENERATE CENTRAL.  BIG TROY PROJECTED HEISMAN WINNER, BQ THIRD... Forget all the other creatures making a run for the Downtown Athletic Club, as only a Leprechaun, a smelly pig, and one huge gigantic rolling Buckeye have been invited for Saturday's ceremony - and the website stiffarmtrophy.com has projected Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith as the runaway winner with nearly 60 percent of the total votes. The site is essentially an exit poll among known Heisman voters, and traditionally has a margain of error of only three percent. The big surprise is that the site has Arkansas sophomore running back Darren McFadden is projected to narrowly beat out Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn for second place. In a much smaller sampling conducted by the Rocky Mountain News, Troy Smith is listed first on nine of ten ballots, With McFadden again narrowly edging Quinn for second. WOMAN CHARGED WITH TRYING TO EXTORT BART STARR??? An 81-year-old Texas woman has been charged with trying to extort $2 million from Green Bay Packers legend Bart Starr. Ruby Young mailed a letter to Starr, 72, alleging a romantic encounter with the quarterback in 1960, according to prosecutors. Starr denies knowing the woman, according to a criminal complaint affidavit filed against Young in Alabama. In the initial letter, the woman allegedly wrote 'And now, the time has come for you to pay - to pay for the many injuries you caused me. No I am not a pushover Mr. Starr - and no, I do not need the money - but I intend to see that you pay for your wrong doings.' Prosecutors said Wednesday that Young wrote two more letters to Bart. Starr's son, Bart Starr Jr., said his family felt badly for the woman and only went to the authorities because it seemed like it 'could be a dangerous situation.' Earlier this fall, Starr endorsed a Wisconsin Secretary of State candidate who two years ago wrote a book about her romantic flings with Paul Hornung and other Lombardi-era Packers. COLD CASE??? REWARD INCREASED FOR INFO REGARDING PATA SHOOTING: Reward leading to arrest in murder of Miami gridder increased to $21,000.  DRUDGE HEADLINE - EURO BASKETBALL RIOT CAUGHT ON TAPE: A massive brawl between Red Star Belgrade and PAOK Thessaloniki basketball fans leaves six people injured. The clash erupted before Tuesday's European Cup game when fans of Red Star's local rival, Partizan, showed up in support of the visiting Greek team. A few dozen PAOK fans joined by about 100 Partizan supporters engaged in a fistfight with several hundred Red Star fans converging on the court, throwing flares and ripping off plastic seats from the stands. The brawl ended only after dozens of police were dispatched in full riot gear. JIM MORA SR. QUITS RADIO GIG: Former NFL coach Jim Mora, also the father of current Falcons coach Jim Mora Jr., has left his job with Fox Sports Radio in the wake of his comments about Michael Vick. The move comes a month after Mora Sr. caused a crapstorm by referring to Vick as a 'coach killer'. An FSR representative has confirmed that Mora Sr. has left the network. HAWAII HAKA COPYRIGHTED??? Following up on a previous story - if you stayed up past midnight Eastern time last Saturday, and Army-Navy, USC-UCLA, three conference championship games, and the Rutgers-West Virginia triple-overtime game was not enough of you - you would have seen the Hawaii Warriors performing their pre-game Haka before their game v. Oregon State on ESPN. But there was a twist, as it was not the 'Ka Mate' haka verbatim. There was a reason. It's said that the football program got word from a faculty member during the week that the Haka made famous by New Zealand's All-Blacks rugby team is in fact copyrighted. Te Rauparaha, chief of the Ngati-Toa tribe, was credited with inventing the version of the haka in 1820 that is now used by the All Blacks. The rugby team receives permission from Ngati-Toa to perform the Maori war dance before matches. Players on the Hawaii squad feel that they are not in violation, noting that they are student-athletes and do not profit from the dance, adding that many of the players are Polynesian and that the haka is part of their culture. Nonetheless, the team plans to unveil a brand-new version of the Haka before the team's appearance in the Hawaii Bowl on December 24. Wonder if it will be the throat-slash version??? RUGBY WORLD NOTES UH CONTROVERSY: The recent All-Blacks 'row' was when they elected to do the Maori challenge in the tunnel of Cardiff's Millenium Stadium, as opposed to on the field. Now a Welsh newspaper explains the UH story and why they had to modify the routine.BASEBALL OWNERS ALREADY REGRETTING CBA??? The rich continue to get richer, as even middle-tier players are cashing in with outrageous contracts - while agent Scott Boras and over-rated pitcher Barry Zito try to milk every last cent that they can out of the New York Mets, but don't think that organization is filing Chapter 11 anytime soon. Meanwhile, it is said that things are very quiet in the Milwaukee Brewers camp at the winter meetings - because there are no players they can afford!!! GM Doug Melvin notes that the team elected to trade Carlos Lee during last season, fearing that he could command $65 million on the open market. El Caballo wound up inking with the Astros for an even $100 million. Also, what happens in Boston when D.L. Drew (5 years/$70 million) gets his first hangnail???  NBA CONSPIRACY THEORY??? Commissioner David Stern acknowledges he should have talked to players before unveiling the NBA's new game ball last summer. Meanwhile, Rotoworld reports a very interesting theory on why the association changed from a leather ball to one of a microfiber composite. The rumor says that the wife of a team owner suggested to the commish that the league look into using a more 'animal-friendly' basketball. Would you be surprised if PETA (which could also stand for Players Earning Tremendous Amount of money) is in the middle of firing some e-mails to the NFL and MLB right now??? Ditch the pigskin, get rid of the cowhide!!! Maybe baseball could go to rubber balls - either someone hits 200 home runs in a season or games never end because everyone would be intentionally walked.BEN JOHNSON CONSPIRACY THEORY??? Disgraced Canadian sprinter tells Australian paper that he was basically slipped a mickey before 1988 100-meter Olympic event, and that rival Carl Lewis was behind it!!! In the December 1st interview, Ben says that he had a pop with a former American football player, who was a 'family friend' of Lewis. Ben says he had the beer in a drug test waiting room, and feels that the beer was tainted with stanozolol. Johnson would win the gold medal with a then unheard of world record of 9.79 - but was stripped of the win and took the first plane out of Korea after testing positive. Runner-up Lewis was then declared the winner with a time of 9.92. 18 years and that's the best story he can make up??? Guess the moral of the story is if you can't go right away, drink water!!! RAMS ROOKIE ARRESTED AFTER BAR ALTERCATION: Just maybe Marc Bulger has a point - rookie tight end Dominique Byrd was charged Monday with allegedly hitting a bar patron in the face with a beer bottle hours after the Rams embarrasing home loss to Arizona. Police were called to the Pepper Lounge after the incident which of course occurred at around 1:30 in the morning. The altercation is said to have started after Byrd had grabbed a woman by the butt, after which a man objected which got him smacked upside the head with the bottle, which broke causing the man to end up getting stiches. Byrd has surrendered with bond being set at $25,000. It's hard to say if Byrd was more upset about the Rams or alma-matter USC losing. NASCAR DROPS NYC PROJECT: International Speedway Corporation has scrapped plans to build a track on Staten Island, most likely ending NASCAR's hopes of being represented in the New York area. ISC had hoped to build a 0.8-mile state-of-the-art track that would have accommodated 80,000 fans with the New York City skyline as a backdrop. But the proposal was met by severe resistance, including a a hotly contested public meeting in which police had to be called in before cooler heads prevailed. ISC's decision to scrap the plan was immediately trumpeted as a 'monumental victory for the people of Staten Island,' by a New York City Council Minority Leader. ISC had invested $150 million acquiring what was believed to be the largest parcel of undeveloped land in New York City, it is believed that ISC will now sell that land.  STUDY - DIVIDE BETWEEN WHITE, BLACK GRADUATION RATES FOR BCS PARTICIPANTS: The ten teams headed for BCS bowls this year performed better academically than the national average, according to a study released Monday. At these top programs, however, the disparity between black and white graduation rates grows by nearly double. White athletes of teams in the Bowl Championship Series, including the BCS title game, beat their counterparts among all 119 Division 1-A schools by graduating 81 percent of the time, compared with 62 percent division-wide. The black athlete graduation rate was only 56 percent among BCS participants, the graduation rate for all of D-1 was 49 percent. Of the 64 teams invited to bowl games this year, 86 percent graduated at least half their players. Boston College and Navy, who meet in the Meineke Bowl, had the best Academic Progress Rates of any bowl-bound programs. Seven of the eight Atlantic Coast Conference teams appearing in bowls rank in the top 25 academically: Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, Wake Forest. The lone exception among ACC represetatives was Virginia Tech. On the down side, #1 ranked Ohio State ranks next-to-last in black academics. The Buckeyes graduated 32 percent of black players, better only than Georgia at 24 percent among bowl teams. Ohio State has an 80 percent overall graduation rate for athletes, 85 percent for white football players.NFL PUNTER PERFORMS WITH HEAVY HEART: Packers punter Jon Ryan compiles a 39.5 net average (and he had plenty of punts) against the New York Jets, just 48 hours after losing his father to a rare form of terminal cancer. Ryan has dealt with his dad's diagnosis since training camp, and left the team to visit him in Saskatchewan last Wednesday. After Sunday's game, Ryan drove immediately to the Milwaukee airport to catch a flight to Regina, where a memorial service was scheduled Monday. PUJOLS PLANS APOLOGY TO RYAN HOWARD: I suggested last week that perhaps something got lost in the translation when Albert Pujols allegedly suggested to the Latin media that the National League MVP should come from a playoff team. That now appears to be exactly the case, as the Cardinals slugger says he was 'sick to his stomach' over the way he was portrayed in that interview, and plans to apologize to Ryan Howard, saying 'I feel so bad because I love Ryan Howard. I never said he didn't deserve the MVP. He is deserving of that award. He earned it. That's why he got it. I'm not trying to defend myself; I just want to tell him that I'm sorry for all of this because he earned the MVP. The last thing I want to do is spoil this for him.' Pujols adds that last week's comments were misinterpreted and that he is angry on how the comments came out in the English speaking media. ANOTHER BENGAL ARREST!!! That had to have been a long 'dry' spell (no pun intended), as no Bengal had made the blotter for at least 5-6 weeks. Unfortunately the NFL Network's creation of a Thursday night game left the team with a rare weekend off. Former Texas A&M star Reggie McNeal took full advantage, flying down to Houston, where he was arrested after trying to get into a nightclub just after bar-time. According to the complaint, McNeal struck an officer in the chest with his elbow after being told the establishment was closed for the night. It's said McNeal became verbally abusive and used profanity towards the officer, who then noticed an alcoholic odor. Then the officer tried to place McNeal under arrest for public intoxication, when McNeal elbowed him in the chest - sending both men to the ground. McNeal now has a court date in Texas this coming Friday.  NFL WEEK 13... BULGER THROWS TEAMMATES UNDER THE BUS: Normally soft-spoken Rams QB shifts far out of character, pointedly accuses some of not caring whether the team wins or loses, adds the problem has been going on for 'a couple of months'. Bulger does say that running back Stephen Jackson and receivers Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce are not among the problems. PARCELLS COMES OFF AS A GENIUS, KIWANUKA A GOAT (AGAIN): Anyone think Vandercrap would had nailed that last-second field goal down the middle?? Terrell Owens may even have to admit that. Meanwhile Giants rookie DE Mathias Kiwankua finds himself smack in the middle of yet another unfortunate occurrance. Intercepting a pass, then promptly fumbling, leading to a momentum-changing Dallas TD. REGGIE SAYS MY NAME IS EARL: Not only does Reggie Bush finally strut his old USC form in scoring four times, but also does a very impressive Earl Campbell impersonation on one play. BAD DAY FOR TOMLINSON, ONLY SCORES TWICE: But rushes for 178 yards in win at Buffalo. Anyone notice that the Chargers are a pretty darn good bad-weather team these days?? Bad news is win coupled with Indy loss gives Bolts inside track towards the AFC's #1 seed - hopefully the Pineapple Express will blow the Santa Ana's out by mid-January. JETS BOSS LOOKING A LOT LIKE THE PATS BOSS: And considering New England routed Green Bay 35-0 just two weeks earlier, that was not a good sign. Chad Pennington does his best Tom Brady impersonation, hitting eight different receivers in his first two drives as Jets easily win in Lambeau. And has anyone notice that the Pack is pretty lousy in the cold these days - there best performances this year were in Miami and the dome in Minneapolis. BEARS WIN NFC NORRIS, BUT QB QUESTIONS REMAIN: Rex passes for all of 34 yards, but is bailed out by defensive score and Devin Hester's fourth return TD of the season. Not unlike what you see with NHL backup goaltenders, I think Brian Griese is being saved as a 'playoff changeup', along with second year back Cedric Benson. NEW BRONCOS QB STRUGGLES MIGHTILY: Late game-tying 71-yard TD pass notwithstanding (where the receiver did most of the work after the catch), Jay Cutler fails to impress in Denver's third straight loss. You might want to hold off on the Elway comparisons for a couple of weeks.  NO RECOUNT NEEDED, SIGNS POINT TO FLORIDAThe early indications are that the Florida Gators will play the Ohio State Buckeyes for the national championship. Florida (12-1) jumped over Michigan (11-1) in the USA Today coaches' poll Sunday, and a BCS analyst expects Florida to also move into second place in the Bowl Championship Series standings as well. LA TIMES CONFIRMS GATORS: According to a BCS source, Florida moves from fourth to second, ahead Michigan in the final BCS standings. USC and Michigan are expected to be paired in the Rose bowl while the Sugar Bowl becomes a LSU/Notre Dame matchup. The Fiesta Bowl will be Oklahoma/Boise St. while the Orange Bowl gets a Louisville/Wake Forest matchup that will barely move the needle. INTERNET FAN POLLS SPLIT: With over 300,000 voting in a Yahoo poll, Michigan holds a slim 52 to 48 percent lead. A CBS Sportsline poll asking WHO WILL FACE Ohio St. favors Florida 55-45. Finally, with nearly 600,000 voting in an ESPN poll, Florida gets a slim 51-49 nod, however if going by 'electoral votes' in the ESPN poll, Michigan wins 311-224 by carrying the democratic hot beds of New York and Florida - someone call Katherine Harris. |
2003 NFL DRAFT PROFILES
