I was reading this article (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=fleming/081029&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab6pos1) about who is the dirtiest player in the NFL now that Rodney Harrison's career may be down the toilet. For those that didn't see it, Harrison crumpled over himself attempting to make a play, was on the ground for a long time and was then carted off the field with a splint for his entire leg, waving to the crowd as he headed down the tunnel. That is never a good sequence for a 35 year old, 100 mph player with more than a decade of smash mouth football under his helmet. He tore his right quadriceps muscle (ouch) and is now on injured reserve.
Harrison hasn't been without injury in the past, already recovering from tearing his ACL, MCL and PCL in 2005, his shoulder (and subsequently his other knee) were injured in 2006, limiting his playing time. To start 2007, however, Harrison was suspended for four games stemming from his admittance to purchasing human growth hormone. Afterward, Harrison claimed it was "accelerating the healing process from injuries [he] sustained playing football," and "never to gain a competitive edge."If that is a sincere case, is he now being doubted to come back for fear of tarnishing what may still be a Hall of Fame career?
Harrison was written off by the Chargers 5 years ago when he was released before singing with the Patriots. Was his ability to come back from devastating injuries (three ligaments in one knee, a shoulder and another knee) less his heart than his, ahem, regimen? I have always like Harrison, he anchored a two time champion secondary for my favorite team, but never gave him a free pass for the HGH, regardless of his end game with them. Injuries are a part of the game and why should you have an easier return than the guy in the pool and in therapy for months working it out.
I would love to see Rodney back in the lineup, equal for his personality as for his talent, but not at the cost of having to devalue him any further for another positive HGH test.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
World Series
World Series
Tampa Bay Rays vs Philadelphia Phillies
The world series starts tonight and it should be the first non sweep in a couple of years. The Phillies and Rays are evenly matched when it comes to offense. However, the pitching and momentum favors the Rays. The Phillies have been sitting on their hands for nearly a week now while the Rays staved off a Red Sox comeback and played until this past Sunday. Home field also favors the Rays where they were 57-24 during the regular season.
Having said that, if Cole Hamels can shut down BJ Upton, Evan Longoria and the rest of the Rays offense in Game 1, he could slow the upstart Rays and the Phillies could take the series. I think Hamels is a stud and perfectly capable of doing so.
Result: Phillies in 6
MVP - Cole Hamels
Tampa Bay Rays vs Philadelphia Phillies
The world series starts tonight and it should be the first non sweep in a couple of years. The Phillies and Rays are evenly matched when it comes to offense. However, the pitching and momentum favors the Rays. The Phillies have been sitting on their hands for nearly a week now while the Rays staved off a Red Sox comeback and played until this past Sunday. Home field also favors the Rays where they were 57-24 during the regular season.
Having said that, if Cole Hamels can shut down BJ Upton, Evan Longoria and the rest of the Rays offense in Game 1, he could slow the upstart Rays and the Phillies could take the series. I think Hamels is a stud and perfectly capable of doing so.
Result: Phillies in 6
MVP - Cole Hamels
Monday, October 13, 2008
A Novel Defensive Plan
The biggest problem in the majority of NFL secondaries today is a lack of height. 6' 4" receivers are snagging balls from 5' 10" defensive backs. It seems that any fast player with leaping ability and hands is seperated into two pools at the high school level, receiver or DB. If you were to force all teams to play all of their DB's at receiver and their WR's in the secondary, opposing defenses would get a huge, immediate boost. So why is it more teams don't utilize a WR in the secondary more. Granted, playing both ways is an extremely tiring task, as anyone who played high school ball can most likely attest, but a receiver who poses a deep threat to defense with no one to deliver the ball to him would undoubtedly be more beneficial playing on the opposite side of the ball.
Extrapulating that (as my mind becomes head football coach of the New England Patriots), why not play Randy Moss in the secondary? You're team is hurting in the wake of injuries to both Tom Brady and Laurence Maroney and you're defense is pretty good but not keeping you close enough in games. You move Moss into the secondary (substituting Deltha O'Neil, who was horrendous against the Chargers) and across from Ellis Hobbs. You match him against not necessarily their best receiever, rather their taller one, who is often their best (see Burress, Plaxico and Wayne, Reggie). This puts someone with immense acceleration, tremendous hands and leaping prowess that is unmatched in the NFL into a position to pick off and defend a lot passes.
What happens to Moss on the offensive side of the ball, you may ask? He will still play several downs with the offense. True, this will be a personal sacrifice by Moss for the greater good of the team. For him, however, it will be worth it to come back with a big contract and play with Brady again in 2009. For the Pats' secondary, you suddenly have a sound squad and a better defense. You will still have Warren, Wilfork and Seymour up front and Vrabel, a great rookie in Jered Mayo and a Pro Bowl season from Adalius Thomas at Linebacker. You then have a much better coverage team with Moss, Ellis Hobbs, Harrison and an up and coming Brandon Meriwhether in the secondary. Your defense becomes a much stingier one.
Moss doesn't have the caliber in quarterback with Cassell to exploit his greatest strengths. Cassell manages a simple offense and passes past the 15 yard mark are worse than hit or miss (with the awful third option of INT). As is evident by the first few weeks this season, Cassell and Moss are not on the same page and when they are, Cassell cannot deliver the football and Randy has not been helpful with his traditional highlight reel catches. The offense will excel with a focus on running/pounding/swinging the ball to Sammie Morris and Kevin Faulk and the WR screens to Wes Welker rather than Moss' sulking streaks down the sidelines to wish for a ball 30 yards downfield from a mediocre quarterback. The offense becomes more manageable for Cassell and thus more productive and the defense becomes more reliable and possibly even better with big plays (any plays really at this point).
It is a very risky idea to actual put into action. What if Moss becomes even more irritated or worse, injured on the defensive side of the ball? What if the lack of his offensive production hurts the offensive to the point stagnant? It cannot be worse than the lackluster team they are throwing out at this point in the season.
Extrapulating that (as my mind becomes head football coach of the New England Patriots), why not play Randy Moss in the secondary? You're team is hurting in the wake of injuries to both Tom Brady and Laurence Maroney and you're defense is pretty good but not keeping you close enough in games. You move Moss into the secondary (substituting Deltha O'Neil, who was horrendous against the Chargers) and across from Ellis Hobbs. You match him against not necessarily their best receiever, rather their taller one, who is often their best (see Burress, Plaxico and Wayne, Reggie). This puts someone with immense acceleration, tremendous hands and leaping prowess that is unmatched in the NFL into a position to pick off and defend a lot passes.
What happens to Moss on the offensive side of the ball, you may ask? He will still play several downs with the offense. True, this will be a personal sacrifice by Moss for the greater good of the team. For him, however, it will be worth it to come back with a big contract and play with Brady again in 2009. For the Pats' secondary, you suddenly have a sound squad and a better defense. You will still have Warren, Wilfork and Seymour up front and Vrabel, a great rookie in Jered Mayo and a Pro Bowl season from Adalius Thomas at Linebacker. You then have a much better coverage team with Moss, Ellis Hobbs, Harrison and an up and coming Brandon Meriwhether in the secondary. Your defense becomes a much stingier one.
Moss doesn't have the caliber in quarterback with Cassell to exploit his greatest strengths. Cassell manages a simple offense and passes past the 15 yard mark are worse than hit or miss (with the awful third option of INT). As is evident by the first few weeks this season, Cassell and Moss are not on the same page and when they are, Cassell cannot deliver the football and Randy has not been helpful with his traditional highlight reel catches. The offense will excel with a focus on running/pounding/swinging the ball to Sammie Morris and Kevin Faulk and the WR screens to Wes Welker rather than Moss' sulking streaks down the sidelines to wish for a ball 30 yards downfield from a mediocre quarterback. The offense becomes more manageable for Cassell and thus more productive and the defense becomes more reliable and possibly even better with big plays (any plays really at this point).
It is a very risky idea to actual put into action. What if Moss becomes even more irritated or worse, injured on the defensive side of the ball? What if the lack of his offensive production hurts the offensive to the point stagnant? It cannot be worse than the lackluster team they are throwing out at this point in the season.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Baseball Predictions Part 2
Well, since it is my blog I guess I can show a bit of hubris. If you scroll a measly one post down, you will see my predictions for the baseball playoffs. These are indeed predictions and not results, although they 75% could be. It is true, that I picked 3 of the 4 division series winners and how many games they would need to get things wrapped up. The lone standout is I picked the Dodgers in 5, not being pessimistic enough about the horrible Cubs team that got absolutely wrecked in the opening series against the boys in Blue. That's better than the "expert" picks I read in the days leading up to Game 1's.
Back to living in the now rather than my past glory.
Red Sox vs. Rays
Sox in 6
As a Sox fan, this series scares me. The Rays are in uber cocky, there's nothing going to stop us mode that you hate to see. Then again, the Angels had that same idea and failed to execute again (although they seem to think they were the better team, yet lost 3 of 4 (that's a .250 winning percentage) Keep dreaming L.A.). I am interested to see if Lester starts game 1 (on 3/4 days of rest depending on how you count it), or if it will be the chip artist Dice-K or the legend Beckett. I think that is a big decision for Terry and he may only want Lester to be the one to do it, which would help explain his logic of pulling in the 7th last night on some bogus split second reaction Lester had to getting the final out of his night. I like the Red Sox "been there before" look they seemingly bring to the park each game a bit more than the Rays mentality that I detailed above so I will take experience over youth but look out for the Rays over the next three years.
MVP - John Lester
Dodgers vs Phillies
Dodgers in 5
Remember when the Rockies went on a tear to the World Series last year? While the numbers weren't as impressive (like 20+ game winning streak to end the season), but they were mind boggling since the Ramirez trade. They have the hottest pitching in baseball, a great bullpen (Lidge can't take the 7th - 9th every night) and a guy who just flat out hits each October. If the Phillies can slow them down with a strong Cole Hamels start in Game 1 and that lineup starts catching some fire and wins some 7-6, 9-8 types of ball games, the Phillies will take this one in 7. Unfortunately I dont think anything is stopping Manny and Torre's return to Fenway Park in the biggest series of the year.
MVP - Manny Ramirez
Back to living in the now rather than my past glory.
Red Sox vs. Rays
Sox in 6
As a Sox fan, this series scares me. The Rays are in uber cocky, there's nothing going to stop us mode that you hate to see. Then again, the Angels had that same idea and failed to execute again (although they seem to think they were the better team, yet lost 3 of 4 (that's a .250 winning percentage) Keep dreaming L.A.). I am interested to see if Lester starts game 1 (on 3/4 days of rest depending on how you count it), or if it will be the chip artist Dice-K or the legend Beckett. I think that is a big decision for Terry and he may only want Lester to be the one to do it, which would help explain his logic of pulling in the 7th last night on some bogus split second reaction Lester had to getting the final out of his night. I like the Red Sox "been there before" look they seemingly bring to the park each game a bit more than the Rays mentality that I detailed above so I will take experience over youth but look out for the Rays over the next three years.
MVP - John Lester
Dodgers vs Phillies
Dodgers in 5
Remember when the Rockies went on a tear to the World Series last year? While the numbers weren't as impressive (like 20+ game winning streak to end the season), but they were mind boggling since the Ramirez trade. They have the hottest pitching in baseball, a great bullpen (Lidge can't take the 7th - 9th every night) and a guy who just flat out hits each October. If the Phillies can slow them down with a strong Cole Hamels start in Game 1 and that lineup starts catching some fire and wins some 7-6, 9-8 types of ball games, the Phillies will take this one in 7. Unfortunately I dont think anything is stopping Manny and Torre's return to Fenway Park in the biggest series of the year.
MVP - Manny Ramirez
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