'THE EDGE' (COMING SOON!!) |
|
BARRY MELROSE SEZ HE WAS TUNED OUT!!! TIPS APPRECIATED!!! |
|
ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE FOR OU - 60+ POINTS |
|
Buy all Sports Tickets including MLB Baseball Tickets , NBA Basketball Tickets , NHL Hockey Tickets , Concert Tickets and NFL Football Tickets like Chicago Bears Tickets , Indianapolis Colts Tickets , New England Patriots Tickets , San Diego Chargers Tickets , New York Jets Tickets , and Miami Dolphins Tickets
TOP STORIES - NOVEMBER 20, 2008  2008 FANTASY FOOTBALL (EXPANDED!!!): QUARTERBACKS | RUNNING BACKS | WIDE RECEIVERS | TIGHT ENDS/KICKERS/TEAM DEFENSESFATHER OF DONALD DRIVER ALLEGEDLY BEATEN BY COPS: There are at least a couple of versions of this story currently out. The version out of Milwaukee has Marvin Driver being arrested during a traffic stop because of outstanding traffic warrants at 1:30 a.m., and was to be taken to jail. But the family insists Marvin was found by paramedics who saw him lying on the ground bloodied and unconscious with a brain hemorrhage - and that through writing notes in the ICU says at least one of the officers knew who he was and that some sort of pill was shoved down his throat while being beaten behind a gas station. The Houston Chronicle's story has Marvin being arrested at his mother's house, then being found unresponsive when brought to the police station. You will also note the name of Quannell X, he is said to be a noted African-American activist in the Houston area, he is acting as the Driver family's spokesman in this case. Marvin Driver does have a criminal history, doing time in prison during Donald Driver's childhood. Lots of allegations in this story thus far that really should not be commented on until more is known, but if the police did hurt the man knowing he was the father of a very well-known NFL player, then that would be doubly stupid - but their side of the story has to be heard as well. Another recent case involving Houston area police and possible excessive force occurred just last month when Astros pitcher Brandon Backe (who is white) was said to be punched twice in the face by cops during a wedding reception melee in Galveston, which ended with Backe and nine others being arrested.  SHERMAN ABOUT TO MARCH OUT OF COLLEGE STATION??? Here's where you can find Mike Sherman these days, fresh off of sending the Packers straight to the bottom of the NFC standings a few years back, he has now managed to do even worse at Texas A&M. Maybe falling short to Texas and Oklahoma is one thing, but letting the likes of Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M bypass you in the Big XII arms race is another, and getting blown out by BAYLOR takes it down even another level. I think they expect at least being ranked #5 or #6 in the nation down there, not being ranked #5 or #6 in the state of Texas. The honeymoon is also ending quickly for Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, who said this week that he feels compelled to tell his fan base to 'get a life' and is ready to play the 'there are bigger problems in the world like the economy' card. Except recessions shouldn't extend to being owned at home by Northwestern - R-Rod could be seeing the Red Ring of Death sooner rather than later if he doesn't turn it around next year.FORMER VIKE WANTS BRAD CHILDRESS IN THE RING!!! After a couple of turbulent seasons in Minnesota, former first-round draft bust Troy Williamson now says he wants to duke it out with coach Brad Childress when the Jaguars face off against the Vikings this Sunday. Troy says that all his bridges in Minnesota burned down last year when coach tried to dock him a game's pay while he was dealing a pair of family crisis's. Actually there are enough problems with Twin Cities bridges without them getting napalmed. But it isn't really like Troy has turned his career around with the Jaguars this year - he has caught all of four passes all year and will miss this week's contest with a lingering groin injury. Perhaps Childress should sign Brock Lesnar back on his practice squad so someone would have his back. MOTHER OF ALL GOLF DQ'S: Earlier this year I compiled a list of the 18 most infamous golf penalties/DQ's of all-time (2/7/08, scroll to bottom of page). This year I can add a few more additions to the list, pretty soon I'll be able to do a list of 18 penalties involving John Daly and Michelle Wie alone. But nothing tops the nightmare of veteran J.P. Hayes, who saw his chances of retaining his Tour card for 2009 go down the drain for a mistake made during a PGA Tour Qualifying event last week. The short version of the incident went like this, caddie hands him a ball before teeing off on a Par-3 hole. After marking the ball on the green, JPH realizes that he had just played a different model of Titleist than usual - Rules of Golf stipulates that a golfer declare the ball model that he will be playing, and use only that model for the entire round. Hayes assesses himself the proper penalty (two strokes) and goes back to his usual ball for the remainder of the round. It appeared that Hayes would survive the penalty, as he was still in good position to finish in the top-20, and advance to the final round of qualifying. But it gets worse, later at the hotel Hayes realized that the ball he played was actually a prototype he tested for Titleist a few weeks back. That ball was not approved for competition, and after contacting an official via the phone in Houston ('Houston, I have a problem...') Hayes disqualified himself. JPH refused to blame his caddie for the mix-up, says he meticulously goes through his bags every night, and usually knows he has the right model by lining it's marking on the tee on Par-4 and Par-5 holes. Guess he didn't check his bags good enough and perhaps he should try lining up that marking before every tee-shot. A good walk can sure be spoiled by missing one detail out of about 200. Hayes says he will still be able to play about half a schedule next year on exemptions, and says the upside is that he has plenty of career earnings in the bank and can spend more time with the family.  BLACK BOX VOTING IN NHL: We can call this election, KACSPORTS HAS PROJECTED all six Montreal Canadiens who appeared on this year's All-Star ballot as winners at their respective positions. That includes sieve goaltender Carey Price, whom I'm not sure I'd nominate for the AHL All-Star game right now. In case you don't believe me, look at the early returns, where Montreal players are miles ahead from their closest pursuers at all positions - I think Oklahoma got projected to McCain in more time. An NHL spokesman says it's too early to jump to conclusions - but that 'there is some indication that something has happened'. Yeah I'd say - here's the evidence. IT'S HAPPENING IN THE NFL TOO: Thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign, no less than 20 Washington Redskin players leading at their various positions in early NFL Pro Bowl voting, pretty impressive turnout especially with fan bases such as the Cowboys, Giants, Eagles, and Packers around. The league says it's monitoring the situation and has sent memos to all the teams to step up their promotional efforts. Unlike balloting in other sports, the fan vote only counts one-third in selecting players for the Pro Bowl.BLOODY MONDAY - LAYOFFS HIT HUNDREDS IN NASCAR: In the two days since Sunday's season finale, smaller teams fighting to stay afloat in the NASCAR industry announce massive layoffs - with Hall of Fame Racing, Petty Enterprises, Bill Davis Racing, and the Wood Brothers leading the way in the recession-fueled bloodbath. Those teams face the 2009 season with precious little, if any sponsorship lined up. Chip Ganassi tightened their belts with 71 layoffs before that team's recent merger with DEI. Even the sport's heavyweights have felt the pinch, Hendrick Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing and Roush Fenway Racing have made smaller reductions, with Roush making additional cuts as they reduce their presence in the Truck Series. BCS HEADED FOR ESPN: For the first time starting in 2011, college football's National Championship will be decided outside of broadcast network television, as ESPN outbids FOX in a new four-year contract. It will mark the first time that any championship in the big six (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAA football or basketball) will air on cable. Even though ABC falls under the ESPN umbrella, ESPN will air the games on cable because owning the property will give the network leverage when negotiating subscription fees with the cable companies - and the cost is passed down to - you guessed it, the consumer - that is unless of course the cable company decides to then move ESPN from it's basic tier (see NFL Network). ESPN also landed complete wire-to-wire coverage of the British Open last week - that contract begins in 2010, with ABC showing only taped-delayed highlights of the final two rounds.  IT'S A BIG DEAL IN VEGAS: And also in the Fantasy Football world if you happened to have the Pittsburgh defense, as well as Troy Polamalu's career stat sheet. Troy returns a fumbled attempted lateral for an apparent touchdown on the final play of the game in the Steelers home win over San Diego. The score would had given the Steelers a 17-10 (or 18-10 with a PAT) win in a game in which Pittsburgh went off at -5. But after further review the refs called the final lateral as an illegal forward pass and declared the play dead at that point, which restored the original 11-10 final score (the first such final score in 12,838 NFL all-time regular season games). But after the game the officiating crew confessed that Pittsburgh should had been allowed to decline the penalty and accept the result of the play, in which the score would had counted.GREG ROBINSON SQUEEZED OUT OF SYRACUSE: With the team two losses away from a possible third straight ten-loss season, AD decides to pull the plug now. The only surprise here is that Robinson lasted even this long. MELROSE PLACE CANCELLED: Different sport, but again the surprise is that Barry Melrose even made it through 16 games with the Tampa Bay Lightning - the axe falls early for NHL team with bad starts, I was expecting the pink slip for him after six games, or even after the first two regular season games against the Rangers in Europe. The possible final straw may had been when Melrose decided just to not show up for a practice this week. Perhaps more eye-opening is Melrose's interim replacement, assistant coach Rick Tocchet, back behind the bench after being a central figure in the gambling scandal that also involved head coach Wayne Gretzky in Phoenix a couple years back. Tocchet is still under probation in that case, and Tocchet maintains the gambling ring did not involved putting money down on NHL games. Tocchet was reinstated by the league this past February, exactly two years after being first suspended. SLUR ON BARACK GETS UT PLAYER BOOTED OFF TEAM: We have a winner in the first person to get busted over saying something stupid about President-Elect Obama's win, and it's not Jimmy the Greek or even Fuzzy Zoeller. Backup sophomore center Buck Burnette left the University of Texas football program this week for what was announced as an unspecified violation of team rules. Turns out the player said something about Obama on his Facebook page that included a slur. According to this site - here is the quote...'Hunters gather up, we have a (African-American) in the White House' That is a an apparent reference to fears that Obama may sign new gun control laws that could make things tough on hunters trying to buy guns/ammo (sales in some areas have been said to have near-doubled since the election). You can see the screenshot of the page with the player apologizing for being a 'sore loser'. Too late, cannot unring that bell - especially in a college football environment where a good percentage of the participants are black and other ethnic/cultural backgrounds. Before taking down his page, Burnette issued a statement saying 'clearly I have made a mistake and apologized for it and will pay for it' and added he got the remark as a text message and posted on his site in light of the election without thinking, and added that he is not a racist and said he did not mean to spread hate that he doesn't even believe in. Senior defensive end Brian Orakpo said he considered Burnette's dismissal 'appropriate', saying 'My prayers are for him, but we've got to move on. Guys got to make better decisions for their future.' Orakpo added that 'With the way the media and the Internet is evolving, everything you say can get you in trouble.' Quarterback Colt McCoy considers Burnette to be among his friends and said that he told him to keep his head up and 'things will blow over'. Head Coach Mack Brown says he would prefer players not to have personal web pages but cannot prevent them from doing so. Hopefully Burnette will straighten himself out and an NFL scout will notice him at West Texas A&M (or wherever) in the next couple of years. BREWERS GM SAYS YANKEES 'OVER-BIDDING': Asks (I guess hypothetically) that if it were true that he had offered CC Sabathia $100 million why the Yankees would offer $140 million (or upwards of $180 million according to some reports) when something like $110 million would do. I think Melvin just answered his own question - if the Yankees don't make an insane offer, someone else (a certain team in Boston comes to mind) will. CROWD WALKS OUT ON LSU BEFORE COMEBACK WIN: So when is scoring 30 points in the fourth quarter for a stirring 40-31 win NOT impressive. When you are LSU playing Troy University at home. LSU was down 31-3 midway through the third quarter before rallying for 37 unanswered points, by the time LSU scored the go-ahead touchdown, Tiger Stadium was said to be two-thirds empty. I'm guessing even the Golden Girls and the band were even gone. Guess Les Miles should had told his team that game time was 7 PM - and never mind my lock to take LSU laying only 18.  CHIP GANASSI AND DEI - LET'S TALK MERGER!!! As you can tell, Teresa looks VERY pleased with this development while Ganassi is doing pretty well as a Pete Rose double these days. The new operation will be called Earnhardt Ganassi racing, with existing Ganassi driver Juan Pablo Montoya, current DEI drivers Martin Truex and Aric Almirola, and most likely either Ganassi's Reed Sorenson or DEI's Regan Smith being the four drivers. The merged operation is expected to compete in Chevy's, the Ganassi operation was a Dodge team. Also over 100 employees from the two operations have already been handed pink slips as a result of the merger. NASCAR CUTTING OUT TESTING: You think the tire problems at various tracks this year was bad??? In yet another sign of the times, NASCAR announces there will be no testing at tracks where races in the Cup, Nationwide, or Truck Series are contested - in addition, there will be no pre-season testing in January at Daytona International Speedway. It's believed that most testing next year will be held at local tracks in the Charlotte area, where most teams are located - as well as some now-defunct facilities such as Rockingham Speedway.'THIS IS WHY I CAME BACK...' Can Favre, Jets DARE dream Super Bowl??? SEAN AVERY ACQUISITION NOT LOOKING SO HOT: As the Dallas Stars languish in 13th place in their conference, Sean Avery is quickly finding out that he is rubbing his OWN players the wrong way. After a recent loss that saw Avery and two other players sent off for misconduct penalties, Dallas veteran Mike Modano called his teams actions 'idiotic and stupid' and adds that if things are going to go this way that he might as well go out and find another line of work. Maybe Mike Singletary should be coaching the Stars. LOOK OUT BELOW - PADRES ARE GOING TO LOSE A LOT NEXT YEAR: Looks like this past years 99-loss effort was just a warm-up, as thanks to a divorce involving the teams owner - the San Diego Padres are headed for their umpteenth fire sale in their teams history. Ace pitcher Jake Peavy is already on the trade block, and they sent a FAX out to team icon Trevor Hoffman telling him that his $4 million option will not be picked up. I know TH is on his last legs, but a FAX??? Even the broadcasters are getting out of Dodge, Matt Vasgersian has left his TV gig, he became MLB Network's first hire, where he will be a nightly studio host. That move will also likely end Vasgersian's stints doing FOX NFL games as well as poker on NBC. (ADD: Brewers TV reporter Trenni Kusnierek was also hired by MLB Network as a reporter). I thought the new stadium was supposed to make the Padres a player on a yearly basis - San Diego fans get ripped off again. OBIT - HERB SCORE DEAD AT 75: Herb Score, the Cleveland Indians pitcher and broadcaster whose promising pitching career was shattered after taking a header from a line drive, has died. Score was a 20-game winner in 1956 but suffered multiple fractures around his eye after getting nailed by a line drive the following year. Score regained his vision and returned to the mound the following year, but his career was short-lived after that. Score joined the Indians' broadcast team in 1963 a position that he would hold for 35 years. MATT HOLLIDAY DEALT TO OAKLAND: Days after publicly saying he doesn't want to spend his career on a team that needed a 'perfect storm' to have a chance at a championship - Rockies left fielder has been traded to Oakland for three players - I think Matt needs a perfect earthquake for the A's to have a chance at overtaking the Angels in the AL West anytime soon. It's thought that Oakland won't hang on to Holliday for long with him just a year away from free agency (and making $13 million this coming season) - so Matt will probably get his dream of joining the Red Sox or Yankees or Cubs sooner rather than later. BRANDON MARSHALL STOPPED FROM PERFORMING 'OBAMA TRIBUTE': After scoring the go-ahead TD in the Broncos game in Cleveland last night, Marshall planned to pull a glove painted half-white and half-black onto his hand and raise it into the air, much like the famous medal stand protest of U.S. sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos in 1968. However teammate Brandon Stokley knew of his plan and intervened, know that the with just over a minute left in the game Denver could ill afford a 15-yard penalty - hasn't anyone learned from Jake Locker??? Marshall later explained that he 'wanted to create a symbol of unity' and said that any fine that the 'social landmark' would had been bigger than any potential fine he would have incurred. OK, fines are one game, potentially costing your team a critical game in the process would had been quite another matter.  RYAN LEAF PLACED ON LEAVE OF ABSENCE: Now a quarterbacks coach as well as a golf coach at West Texas A&M, Leaf has been place on leave by the school to deal with a personal issue - one report says he asked a player for a 'pain pill'. West Texas A&M, a Division II school, is 9-1 with one game remaining. The team's quarterback has completed 67.7 percent of his passes for 3,812 yards with 36 touchdowns against 14 interceptions. Leaf completed his infamous four-year NFL career with 14 TD's v. 36 INT's.KEVIN JOHNSON WINS MAYOR'S RACE IN SACTO: The former Phoenix Suns point All-Star point guard, now a 42-year-old Democrat with conservative social views, defeats a two-term incumbent. in a run-off election. During the campaign, KJ enlisted the support of others in the basketball world, including Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson and Charles Barkley. KJ becomes Sacramento's first black mayor, and in his acceptance speech echoed Barack Obama's landmark presidential triumph. Other sports figures involved in Tuesday's elections included former Tennessee Vol and Washington Redskins QB Heath Shuler, who won his first re-election bid to Congress, and former Bengals coach Sam Wyche, who was elected to a county council seat in South Carolina. Former Florida State linebacker Peter Boulware was running for a seat as a Republican, and appeared headed for a recount in a close race in which he currently trails. LOOK FOR PLAYERS TO INK CONTRACTS BEFORE BARACK TAX INCREASE: Most baseball free agents normally don't get their contracts finalized before January 1, but that may change this year with the election of Barack Obama. The president-elect has proposed increasing the top federal income tax rate from 35 to 39.6 percent, where it was under president Bill Clinton. Obama's proposal would increase federal income tax on families earning more than $250,000 annually, money that would help finance a decrease for those earning less than $200,000. It's also possible more income might be subject to the Social Security tax. If signing bonuses are paid before the end of 2008, they likely would be taxed at the current rate and would not be subject to the possible increase. |
