Month: May 2018

Fans can’t ask for more star power than this prime-time quarterback matchup.

Five-time Super Bowl champion and three-time league MVP Tom Brady will lead the Patriots against one-time Super Bowl champion and two-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.

While their individual talent stands out in this showdown, so does the fact they will serve as primary storylines this season.

Peter King of TheMMQB called this showdown the regular season game of the year for 2018 and highlighted the fact Brady and Rodgers have only started head-to-head one other time in their illustrious careers—a 2014 win for the Packers.

While this inter-conference clash doesn’t feature the same playoff implications as some of the divisional games on the schedule, the rare chance to see these two future Hall of Famers on the same field makes it the primetime matchup to watch in 2018.

The highlight play won’t wipe away Williams’ egregious coverage fail in January, but it should at the very least deliver a much-needed ‘W’ in the man’s Twitter mentions. We can all use that sometimes.

Those were the infamous press conference parting words from Colts general manager Chris Ballard, whose team was sent into scramble mode after Josh McDaniels walked away from a deal that was to make him Indy’s next head coach. McDaniels opted to remain the offensive coordinator under Bill Belichick in New England, and now the Colts get a chance to stick it to the guy who they thought was their guy. The rivalry comment was a touch melodramatic, sure, but that’s what we like ’round these parts. Revenge will be much more feasible for the Colts if Andrew Luck is playing in this game.

Brandon Marshall Released by Giants Due to Failed Physical

The New York Giants released wide receiver Brandon Marshall after one season with the organization.

General manager Dave Gettleman announced the roster move Thursday. Gettleman said the team used the failed physical designation on Marshall, per Art Stapleton of The Record.

I was just concentrating on controlling my emotions in those situations, focusing on my delivery and trying to get my pitches where I wanted them to go, Garcia said through a translator.

Four relievers finished the four-hitter. Andujar hit his first major league homer off Brad Ziegler with two outs in the ninth, spoiling the shutout.

From Sunday nights to Monday nights to Thursday nights to the opening night of the season in Philadelphia (at least one report has pegged it as a rematch of the Vikings-Eagles NFC title game), all questions will be answered once the NFL removes the sheet from its 256-game slate, capping weeks of elbow grease expended and simulations prepared by Howard Katz and his staff at the league office.

And so, whether it’s Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, the regular-season schedule likely is coming next week. We’ll break down every angle of it as soon after it’s released as possible, and we’ll be tracking all leaks and other advance news as to that key question of when.

The Pacers took the fight to the Cavs, and Indiana’s players are battling critics who say they can’t compete with Cleveland.

We were definitely mad, Stephenson said. They still don’t believe. We’re just going to keep proving everyone wrong and play together.

While some fans are getting their first look at Oladipo, the Pacers have seen this before.

On this team, we all know what Victor can do when he steps on the court, Thaddeus Young said. You’ve got to double-team him because he makes good decisions with the basketball. When you don’t, you saw what he’s capable of.

NFL Draft 2018: Dave Gettleman won’t mortgage Giants future picks, but will he trade down?

History says  Dave Gettleman only trades in one direction during NFL Drafts.

In five years running the Panthers, Gettleman made four in-draft trades, acquiring the highest pick changing hands each time. In other words, he does not trade down.

I’ve seen teams that have great defenses that fold in the fourth quarter because they have no depth and now you have guys on the field for 95-98 percent. There are different ways of looking at it, but if you get a chance to accumulate quality… there is nothing wrong with that.

I’ve been doing it for so long. It’s not like I don’t know what I’m doing, he says. I knew I had to work twice as hard as everybody else just to make a name for myself. And show everybody that I can really be a ballplayer. It’s going to be like that at the next level. I can’t get comfortable, or I can’t feel that I did enough to get where I’m at.

So it’s not the tweets from superstars with millions of followers that Griffin reads and re-reads and recycles as fuel. Nor the literal thousands of messages from strangers he’s received on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Griffin stopped checking his direct messages. No, he ignores the novels praising him and is glued to the 140-character tweets ripping him.

The fan mail Griffin opens all the time and brings up tonight is comprised of pointless potshots from trolls.

Shade that leaks through the cracks, into his mentions, and ensures he’ll remain Beast amid all the adulation.

Brett Favre worries about CTE after probably thousands of concussions

Brett Favre was diagnosed with three or four concussions during his career, but the Hall of Fame quarterback guesses he had probably thousands.

Favre, who has become an advocate for concussion research, worries about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after taking the number of hits he took in a 20-year, 302-game NFL career.

As we’re learning about concussions, there’s a term we use in football and maybe other sports, that I got ‘dinged,’ Favre told NBC’s Megyn Kelly Today, via The Associated Press. When you have ringing of the ears, seeing stars, that is a concussion.

My point in this is: 30 years ago, there wasn’t a problem in anyone’s mind from playing football. It was just a matter of being tough, and the ones who stuck it out and made the most of it. Now, what we know, is it has nothing to do with toughness, and that’s a lot scarier. So I look at my career as something wonderful. I didn’t know; had I known in Year 5, I would have looked at my future a bit closer as my career unfolded.

Actually it’s his receivers making great catches for him, laying out for the ball or going high. I’m not saying he’s never going to be a quarterback, but right now he’s a long way away.

Rodgers’ effort to dismiss the report in sly, subtle, and sarcastic fashion serves only to make me believe it even more. That said, I don’t fault Rodgers for being pissed about not getting a fair chance to speak his mind about the firings of Van Pelt and Nelson. Heck, I’d be pissed if it were me, and I’d expect Rodgers to be pissed if I were the Packers.

I have to show them why they should respect me, Griffin says.

So I always have that edge.

So even during this victory-parade-like trot to draft day—Rodman was a cool dude, he says—Griffin makes a point to bring up two defining crossroads in his life: the day he fell in love with football and the three years when football was taken away from him. To understand that edge, understand what was going through his head those two periods of his life.

Harper blamed the wind for getting doubled off after a routine flyball to deep center by Howie Kendrick.

When you hear a ball that loud off the bat, you think it’s definitely off the wall or even a homer, Harper said. I was scoring and the wind knocked it down and I got doubled up.

Congressman John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and civil rights leader who helped direct the march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, threw out the ceremonial first pitch on Sunday, the day Major League Baseball honored Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier. He received a warm ovation from the sparse crowd.

John Lewis is John Lewis. The name speaks for itself, Martinez said. He’s just one of those people that, you know, people respect and admire.

The home turf is as eclectic as it gets. George Michael’s Freedom blares on a television above, adults rip through beers at the bar, teens share first dates, kids pinball in and out of the arcade, weathered Floridians smoke and curse outside and, at Lane 22 of 32, Griffin is now mocking his brother’s bowling game.

The backspin on Shaquill’s toss is high comedy, with the ball tip-toeing the edge of the left gutter before—Hehhhhh!—shooting into the right. Each time the ball does this twist-a-flex, Griffin howls out a scratchy Hehhhh! from the very back of his throat. Something like a donkey about to vomit.

With each sound effect, he pretends to crank a wheel hard right. Shaquill, ball in hand, nearly collapses in laughter.

For two hours, the fun never stops. The twins roast Golden for struggling when he is the one who took a bowling class in college. It was an elective! Golden pleads. And right then, in the crew’s second game, Golden catches fire to stay neck and neck with Griffin. All those bowling classes start paying off.

Shaquill? A distant third, he kicks back on that circular sofa with a few things to say.

Why Aaron Rodgers and the Packers could be headed for a rocky contract dispute

Aaron Rodgers has earned the title of NFL MVP twice during his time with the Green Bay Packers. So trying to lock down the quarterback with a new contract is an easy decision for the team. Rodgers’ deal is set to expire after the 2019 season and is relatively cheap for one of the best players in the NFL.

We’d certainly like to get it done sooner rather than later, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the NFL Combine of Rodgers’ contract. When you have the best player in the National Football League, it’s not going to be inexpensive. Obviously Aaron is a high priority, he’s a great player, and that should take care of itself at some point.

Once the teams are back in a normal game situation, where every play and potential penalty will have ramifications, the Devils expect the post-whistle stuff to calm down.

At that point there was 20 seconds left, we’re up three, and things happen, Boyle said. It’s an emotional game, but you have to keep your emotions in check, especially trying to keep this series 5-on-5, and play to our strengths.

Capably pinch-hitting for injured middle linebacker Kwon Alexander and weakside linebacker Lavonte David, Beckwith ended up leading all Tampa Bay linebackers in snaps last season. Once he returns to full health, he’s expected to start on the strong side, next to Alexander and David.

After trading for pass rusher Jason Pierre-Paul and signing the former Eagles tandem of Vinny Curry and Beau Allen, the Bucs have a strong claim to the league’s most improved defensive front seven in 2018. Until Beckwith recovers from his injury, though, the unit will be playing short-handed.

The statement added that sports betting legislation should require air-tight coordination between the state, the casino operators and the sports leagues to closely monitor wagers to prevent potential manipulation.

It also noted that the league would incur expenses to help police sports betting and that it’s reasonable for casinos that would profit from it to compensate the leagues because there would be nothing to bet on without their games.