Tag Archives: chad ochocinco

More Moves, More Winners and Losers.

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment
Vince Young e1309451809140 300x197 More Moves, More Winners and Losers.

Vince Young

The National Football League’s training camps will open this weekend, but in the meantime the big moves just keep on coming:

1) Quarterback Vince Young, released by the Tennessee Titans yesterday, has been signed by the Philadelphia Eagles as Michael Vick’s backup. WINNER: The Eagles have had a great free-agent week. Young might be odd, but he can play and in the right circumstance, he can be a big help.

2) Chad Ochocinco is on his way from the Cincinnati Bengals to the New England Patriots. The Bengals will receive a pair of draft picks in return. Ochocinco will be great in New England. WINNER: The Pats. They always win with reclamation projects. Ochocinco will be outstanding in New England and QB Tom Brady has already formally welcomed his new target.

3) With Donovan McNabb now in Minnesota, punter Chris Kluwe announced this morning on K-FAN in the Twin Cities that he will wear No. 4 this season while McNabb gets No. 5. Didn’t some other old quarterback wear No. 4 last year? Can’t remember. WINNER: The Vikings. If McNabb is happy, the Vikings will be happy. And who gives a rat’s ass about the punter anyway?

drc More Moves, More Winners and Losers.

dominique rodgers-cromartie

4) The deal was done quicker than we thought. The Philadelphia Eagles traded quarterback Kevin Kolb to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. A great trade for the Eagles. WINNER: The Eagles. Again. Rodgers-Cromartie is a dominant corner who will make the Eagles defensive immediately better. Kevin Kolb isn’t as good as the NFL’s fawning media experts made him out to be and he also lost his job to Vick. He wasn’t going to play in Philly. In fact, the Eagles are a lot better off with Vince Young.

5) The Carolina Panthers, who already signed linebacker Charles Johnson and runningback DeAngelo Williams made a deal yesterday to acquire tight end Greg Olsen from the Chicago Bears, signed linebacker Joe Beason tyo a five-year, $50 million extension and are now just hours away from signing rookie quarterback Cam Newton. WINNER: The Panthers. Because on Friday, they were last in the NFC South. Today, they could be third and with a quarterback, they could challenge.

Minnesota Vikings training camp opens on Tuesday. We will be there live next weekend.

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LATE FRIDAY ADDITIONS

1) Minnesota free agent defensive end, Ray Edwards, has signed a free agent deal with the Atlanta Falcons. WINNER: Falcons, for obvious reasons.

2) After his release from Dallas wideout Roy Williams has found a home in Mike Martz’s offence in Chicago. WINNER: Chicago. Martz will find a way to use this guy to help make Jay Cutler a better quarterback.

3) Safety and kick returner, Danieal Manning has agreed to a four-year $20 million with the Houston Texans. WINNER: Houston. Manning gives the Texans a double-barrelled shot of speed.

4) Cornerback Eric Wright tweeted on Friday that he’s going to the Detroit Lions. WINNER: The Lions only because it’s another experienced body on a team that Ndamukong Suh says is going 16-0 this season.

5) Big name players who were cut on Friday: Jets — QB Mark Brunell; Steelers — T Flozell Adams; Jaguars — G Vince Manuwai; Falcons — DL Jamaal Anderson, WR Michael Jenkins, RB Jerious Norwood; 49ers — K Joe Nedney.

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A QUICK WORD ABOUT THE BOMBERS…

Winnipeg now has a football team capable of winning the Grey Cup. As the ghosts have long said, “Offense draws crowds, defense wins championships.”

Thursday night, backup quarterback Alex Brink came off the bench in the fourth quarter, after an injury to starter Buck Pierce, and made a great run to set up a game winning touchdown pass to Terrence Edwards as the Blue Bombers beat the B.C. Lions 25-20 in front of more than 29,000 at Canad Inns Stadium last night. The Bombers trailed 13-6 at halftime and Pierce, who left the game with what’s being called a calf strain, got the home side going early in the second half with an 82-yard touchdown pass to Clarence Denmark on the first play of the third quarter.

On an emotional night honouring assistant coach Richard Harris who died of a heart attack on Tuesday, the Bombers defense was outstanding once again as Winnipeg improved to 4-1 on the season and matched their win total from all of last year. The Lions fell to 0-5.  The Bombers D is now No. 1 in every major statistical category in the CFL.

This D makes me think of Tyrone Jones, James West, Greg Battle, Paul Randolph, Rod Hill and Michael Gray. It’s good enough to win it all, no matter who plays quarterback.

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The Great Thing About Sport: The Idiots Guarantee That There is Never A Dull Moment.

Posted on November 22, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

It’s been another wonderful week in the world of sports. A fake World Cup soccer game, a big story that wasn’t and a fine that sends a message — the wrong one.

1) Last weekend, just before the Cincinnati Bengals improved to 7-2, the National Football League fined the uproariously funny Chad Ochocinco (Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ochoNFLcinco85) $20,000 for waving a dollar at a referee.

Now, the incident that got Ochocinco fined was meaningless — and, of course, funny. During a review of an Ochocinco completion, the receiver waved the bill in the official’s direction, obviously attempting to buy the “right” call.

The NFL didn’t like it much and levied the fine, but it’s not what Ochocinco did as much as what the NFL did that’s scary. If waving a dollar bill near a referee gets a player a $20,000 fine, the the NFL is more worried about the integrity of the officials than putting its stamp on the handle, the No Fun League.

If that kind of thing gets a player a fine, I’d be worried that the NFL is so nervous about its officials that it fears the same thing I do — many of the games are pre-determined in the officials’ locker room.

2) We’ve all seen or heard of Thierry Henry’s hand ball by now. The great French striker grabbed a ball near the goal, dropped it to his feet and set up William Gallas with the goal that sent France to the World Cup and Ireland to the sidelines.

Henry, one of the classiest athletes in sport, admitted his foul and agreed the game should be replayed, but FIFA said, ‘No,” because it had to uphold the integrity of the games played and the officials’ decisions.

That’s a crock of course, but it’s typical. Sport organizations go to the wall for their officials even though nothing lets sports organizations down more than bad officiating.

The no-call call on the obvious hand ball was frighteningly bad (everyone in the stadium saw it except the officials) and it called for only one solution: replays.

To be fair, officials make mistakes. But when they make mistakes at absolutely crucial moments, they need help. And when they’re too stubborn to change their minds on the field, they’d better get all the help they can muster.

It’s time for replays in all sports. Period.

3) The Globe and Mail reported this week that the Phoenix Coyotes could lose $50 million this year. That was supposed to be a story that illustrated how bad things have become in the desert. Only one problem. A loss of $50 million would be a good year for the Coyotes.

As court documents showed last summer, the Coyotes have lost $389 million in the last five years. That’s an average of $77.8 million per season.

A loss of only $50 million would be a fabulous year for that franchise and a feather in the cap of Coyotes president Doug Moss.

4) And in closing, the Chicago Bears refused to talk to the media this week.

Naturally, the media had a collective cry-fest. It’s fun watching grown men act like children.

In the fractured media world of today, to demand that someone speak to you is ridiculous. To think one media outlet is more valuable or more important than any other, is simple arrogance.

For years, we’ve heard the misguided suggestion that without the media no one would care about these teams and back in the day that might have a small ring of truth to it. But the world is much, much different now. If teams aren’t going to allow bloggers and on-line news services into the inner sanctum, why should they give newspapers with circulations that are plummeting, special treatment?

It’s probably in the Bears best interest to just shut up for the rest of the season. The media, meanwhile, should have enough ability to fend for itself.

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