The St. Louis Rams announced that quarterback Sam Bradford suffered a high ankle sprain during Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers. The team’s statement on Twitter stated that Bradford “will be day to day this week but certainly limited in practice this week.”

Bradford’s 2011 season has been a nightmare as the Rams have gone 0-6. After 5 games he only has three TDs against 2 interceptions, and his completion percentage is down from 60% in 2010 to 52.8% this season. The Rams implemented a new offense after losing offensive coordinator Pat Shurmer and his West Coast offense, so Bradford has had to adjust to Josh McDaniels as his new coordinator. McDaniels has had his own problems after two tough years as the head coach in Denver.

A sophomore slump isn’t uncommon for NFL quarterbacks, so Rams fans shouldn’t panic, but Bradford needs to be on the field, and this injury may slow him down for a while.

Predicting games in the NFL has become more difficult over the years with the emergence of parity in the NFL. The first couple of weeks always produce a number of shockers.

This year things should be even more unpredictable with the aftermath of the NFL lockout. You have a number of teams installing new systems, with other teams adding new quarterbacks. If you’re going to bet on the NFL in week 1, you’re going to have to watch developments in the preseason so see how different players and teams are responding to the changes. On the other hand, you also can’t put too much stock in the preseason. Hence the dilemma. But that also presents opportunities for astute observers.

Here are a couple of players and teams to keep an eye on:

Colt McCoy – He’s off to a great start in Cleveland. Cleveland is installing the West Coast offense, which typically takes a long time to master. Nobody will suggest that McCoy has “mastered” it after one preseason game, but it’s clear that he’s taking to the system, and that’s consistent with what experienced scouts thought about McCoy. He obviously has all the intangibles, and now he has an offense that is a closer match to his skill set.

Sam Bradford – Pat Shurmer is coaching McCoy this season in Cleveland, and last year Bradford excelled in Shurmer’s system. This season, however, Bradford gets a new system and coordinator with the arrival of Josh McDaniels. McDaniels has a good track record with quarterbacks, but we’ll have to see how Bradford adjusts. He didn’t get off to a great start in his first preseason game but there’s plenty of time.

The Bengals – This could be a disaster, as the Bengals might be going with rookie Andy Dalton. This kid has some ability, but jumping from TCU to the NFL is quite a leap. He wasn’t that great in his preseason debut, so we’ll have to see how he develops. The Bengals might be in the early running for the Andrew Luck sweepstakes.

The Redskins – This will be the real test of the Shanahan ego express. Who knows who will start, and we’ll see if the Shanahans are as smart as they think.

Donovan McNabb – Can he still play? Will he do better under coaches that give him a longer leash?

These are just some of the questions leading up to the season, so get to work! At least it’s more fun than reading up on labor issues . . .

Years from now, when people look back on 2010, what will they remember as the defining sports moment? Uh, they can only pick one? We discovered that Tiger Woods likes to play the field and that Brett Favre doesn’t mind sending pictures of his anatomy to hot sideline reporters via text message. We found out that LeBron listens to his friends a little too much and that Ben Roethlisberger needed a serious lesson in humility. But we also learned that athletes such as Michael Vick and Josh Hamilton haven’t blown second chance opportunities (or third and fourth chances in the case of Hamilton). It was also nice to see a certain pitcher turn down bigger money so that he can play in a city that he loves.

Contributors: Anthony Stalter, John Paulsen, Paul Costanzo, Drew Ellis and Mike Farley

Tiger Woods gets around.

We hesitate to put this under “golf” because the only clubs involved were his wife’s nine-iron hitting the window of his SUV and the various establishments where Tiger wined and dined all of his mistresses…over a dozen in all. This was the biggest story of the early part of the year, but it got to the point that whenever a new alleged mistress came forward, the general public was like, “Yeah, we get it. Tiger screwed around on his wife. A lot.” He has spent the rest of the year attempting to rebuild his once-squeaky clean image, but it’s safe to say, we’ll never look at Tiger the same way.

LeBron wilts when his team needs him most.

Say the words “LeBron” and “Game 5” in the same sentence and NBA fans everywhere know exactly what you’re talking about. In the biggest game of the season, LeBron looked disinterested, going 3-of-14 from the field en route to a 120-88 blowout at home at the hands of the Celtics. There were rumors swirling about a possible relationship between LeBron’s mom and his teammate, Delonte West, and there’s speculation that LeBron got that news before tipoff and that’s why he played so poorly. Regardless of the cause, LeBron played awful in that game, and it turned out to be his swan song in Cleveland as a member of the Cavaliers. Talk about leaving a bitter taste.

You can auction off your talented son’s athletic abilities and get away with it.

The NCAA set a strange precedent this season while dealing with the Newton family. The always inconsistent and completely morally uncorrupt NCAA decided in its infinite wisdom that despite discovering that Cecil Newton shopped his son Cam to Mississippi State for $180,000, and that is a violation of NCAA rules, that Cam would still be eligible because it couldn’t be proven that he knew about it. Conference commissioners and athletic directors around the country spoke out about the decision, while agent-wannabes and greedy fathers everywhere had a light bulb go off in their own heads: As long as we say the player doesn’t know about it, it could go off without a hitch. What was Cecil’s punishment in this whole thing? Limited access to Auburn for the last two games of the season. Easy with that hammer there, NCAA. Read the rest of this entry »

That was quick.

It hasn’t even been two full years since the Denver Broncos hired Josh McDaniels and now he’s unemployed and they’re searching for a new head coach. Following the team’s 3-9 start, the Broncos fired McDaniels on Monday after he led them to losses in 17 of their last 22 games.

Looking at his brief track record, it’s hard to argue with the decision. Immediately upon arriving to Denver, McDaniels started a feud with then-starter Jay Cutler, who was eventually traded to Chicago for a first round pick and parts (uh, Kyle Orton). Then McDaniels led the Broncos to a 6-0 start in 2009, only to collapse down the stretch to finish 2-8. In the offseason, he was part of the contingent that sent No. 1 receiver Brandon Marshall to Miami.

He also had a hand in dealing Peyton Hillis to the Browns in exchange for Brady Quinn, who is now third on the Broncos’ depth chart behind Orton and rookie Tim Tebow. Hillis, meanwhile, hasn’t stopped bowling over defenders since he arrived in Cleveland and has established himself as a feature back.

McDaniels also had a hand in trading away multiple draft picks in order to select Tebow in the first round of April’s draft despite the warning signs that he was a massive project as a passer. Not lost on anybody was his inability to retain Mike Nolan as defensive coordinator following the ’09 season or how he was recently fined because a member of his video department was caught taping one of the 49ers’ walk-through practices in London earlier this year. Spygate 2, anyone?

But even considering all of that, was it enough to fire McDaniels right now? You can’t even properly grade his first draft class yet and nobody has the faintest idea what will become of Tebow. The Broncos didn’t have to commit to him through 2011 but what about through the rest of 2010? And who are you going to replace him with right now? “Wink” Martindale?

McDaniels’ short tenure in Denver was obviously filled with way more misses than hits, but it’s not like the Broncos improved their situation by firing him now. If anything it was a lateral move but then again, sometimes what’s best is to cut your losses and start anew.

For a moment, let’s take a walk in Josh McDaniels’ size 10.5 shoes. (Actually, I have no idea what size shoes he wears, nor should I. That would be creepy.)

If he benches Kyle Orton and starts Tim Tebow the rest of the year, he would appease fans that mercifully had to watch Orton complete only nine of his 28 pass attempts against the Chiefs on Sunday. They want to see Tebow play because he offers a glimpse of what the future may look like. (And while the future may look grim, the present isn’t anything to write home about so what’s the difference?)

But McDaniels’ job status might as well be attached to Tebow’s right arm. If he plays the rookie and Tebow is Jimmy Clausen-like bad, management may ultimately decide that he shouldn’t be calling the shots anymore. After all, since arriving in Denver he jettisoned Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall, traded Peyton Hillis for Brady Quinn (yee-ikes) and dealt multiple draft picks in order to select the project that is Tim Tebow.

Why give the Broncos’ front office any more reason to fire him?

The downside, of course, is that Orton continues to struggle and McDaniels is fired anyway without having the opportunity to coach Tebow on the field. If you’re McDaniels, why not take a shot with Tebow and hope you catch lighting in a bottle? After all, you can’t get much worse than Orton’s performance on Sunday so why not?

But the other problem is that Orton is due $8.8 million in 2011 and he’s earned the right to finish the season (his effort on Sunday notwithstanding). Plus, there’s a real good possibility that Tebow isn’t ready to see the field so it would be selfish of McDaniels to start him and risk stunting his career. Akili Smith and Joey Harrington are just two examples of quarterbacks who weren’t ready to take the field when they did and we all know how their careers turned out.

If I were to make a guess, I would say McDaniels will keep his job for at least another year. It’s hard for a team to invest in a coach only to let him go after only two seasons. I don’t agree with most of McDaniels’ decisions to this point, but two years is hardly enough time to put your stamp on a team. If the Broncos show zero signs of improving next season, then McDaniels should go. But for now, they might as well see what he’s got.

Should McDaniels see what Tebow’s got in the meantime?

Update: Well, clearly I’m a moron because Josh McDaniels has been fired. Nice work, Stalter.

In a recent interview with AOL Fanhouse’s Thomas George, Broncos’ owner Pat Bowlen said that head coach Josh McDaniels will be back in 2011. But quickly after that report was published, the team issued a statement that contradicts Bowlen’s comments.

When asked if McDaniels would be back in 2011, Bowlen told George, “Yes he will. I am not interested in making a coaching change.” He even went on to say that he was “very happy with Josh” and that McDaniels was doing a “good job.”

But after news started to spread about Bowlen’s comments, the Broncos issued a written statement that stated the following:

“This has been a very trying and disappointing season for all of us,” Bowlen said in a written statement. “We haven’t had the success we had hoped to achieve. Josh McDaniels is the head coach of the Broncos, and you always strive for stability at that position. However, with five games left in the 2010 season, we will continue to monitor the progress of the team and evaluate what’s in the best interest of this franchise.”

Read between the lines and Bowlen is essentially saying that McDaniels has five weeks to campaign to keep his job. But given the talent level of the Broncos’ roster, is it fair for Bowlen to expect anything than more inconsistency from this team? Even after blowing out the Chiefs a couple of weeks ago, it was evident in a recent MNF game that Denver can’t hang with the likes of San Diego or other playoff teams in the AFC. So is Bowlen creating a situation where he knows McDaniels will fail?

Of course, the current state of the Broncos is do in large part because of McDaniels’ shoddy decision making. He pissed off Jay Cutler to the point where he had no choice but to trade him, then he sent Brandon Marshall packing last offseason. He also traded Peyton Hillis for Brady Quinn, which could go down as one of the worst deals in NFL history if Hillis continues to play as well as he has, and traded multiple picks in order to draft Tim Tebow (a major project at quarterback) in the first round last April. (Oh, and there was also that little issue of McDaniels getting fined because a member of his video staff was caught video tapping one of the 49ers’ walk-through practices.)

The Broncos are what they are because of McDaniels. Now it’s up to Bowlen to decide whether or not to allow McDaniels to finish what he started or send him packing after only two years. If he fires him, then he just creates a new set of problems. Will the new coach want to work with Tebow? Because if not, then what do you do with him? The Broncos can’t afford to have that pick wasted on a backup or an H-back (assuming the new coaching staff would move him to another position).

Bowlen has a tough dilemma on his hands.

Bill Cowher isn’t buying that Broncos’ video director Steve Scarnecchia acted alone in taping one of the 49ers’ walk-through practices when the two teams played in London a couple of weeks ago.

From USA Today:

“I know they say he acted independently. I don’t agree with that,” Cowher said on “The NFL Today”, “because I think in every room, in every building, the dynamics, you always have to answer to a superior. I have a hard time believing this was done independently.”

Fellow CBS analyst Boomer Esiason added that the illegal recording — the latest problem in the Broncos’ 11-15 start of the McDaniels era — threw the coach’s future into doubt.

“You put that on the fact they’re 5-15 the last 20, the fact Josh McDaniels got rid of (Jay) Cutler, (Brandon) Marshall, (Tony) Sheffler and (Peyton) Hillis, also got blown out at home by the Oakland Raiders, and on top of that drafted Tim Tebow in the first round, you really have to question the decision making of one Josh McDaniels.”

I wrote this when this story first broke:

What are the chances that the Broncos blame Scarnecchia for the entire thing? “Oh, we didn’t know he was doing that. He acted on his own. Dude has always been crazy. We almost had to fire him for stealing printers, so yeah, it figures that he would do something like this.”

I’m not surprised that the Broncos said Scarnecchia acted alone and I highly doubt that McDaniels and the rest of that coaching staff didn’t know exactly what was going on. Why would Scarnecchia video tape another team’s practice if it wasn’t intended to cheat for his team? Unless the man has some weird obsession about video tapping other teams as a personal hobby, everyone knows exactly what Scarnecchia was doing – including McDaniels.

Esiason brings up a great point, too. When you look at his entire body of work up to this point, McDaniels doesn’t have a very impressive track record in Denver in terms of making good decisions. That Hillis trade will go down as the worst of the offseason – if not the worst of the past couple of offseasons.

The only thing that will save McDaniels’ job now and in the future is to win. And he better start doing that soon.

Apparently Josh McDaniels wasn’t paying attention when his former boss Bill Belichick got caught for “Spygate 1″ because now McDaniels’ Broncos are involved in “Spygate 2.”

The NFL is investigating whether or not a Broncos’ employee videotaped a 49ers’ walk-through practice at London’s Wembley Stadium in Week 8. The team’s director of video operations Steve Scarnecchia is currently on a personal leave of absence as the team and the NFL investigate the situation.

And surprise, surprise – Scarnecchia is a former Patriot as well.

From the Denver Post:

McDaniels and Scarnecchia both previously worked for the Patriots, Scarnecchia between 2001 and 2005 and McDaniels between 2001 and 2009 before being hired by the Broncos. In 2007, the Patriots were found to have videotaped New York Jets coaches sending in signals during a game between the two teams, which is against league rules.

McDaniels hired Scarnecchia to run the Broncos’ video operations shortly after he accepted the job in January 2009.

The NFL’s current investigation revolves around practices held by the Broncos and the 49ers on Saturday, Oct. 30, in Wembley Stadium. Both teams were allotted time to hold walk-through practices at the stadium that day. It was the only time while the two teams were in England that they would have used the same facility to practice on the same day. Teams normally bar anyone not associated with the team from watching practice. Taping another team’s practice could result in a severe penalty from the NFL.

That must have been some crappy film because the 49ers wound up beating the Broncos, 24-16. If you’re going to get caught filming another team, you might as well win the Super Bowl like the Patriots did. Don’t tape someone in a regular season game and then lose to them the next day in rather lackluster fashion.

What are the chances that the Broncos blame Scarnecchia for the entire thing? “Oh, we didn’t know he was doing that. He acted on his own. Dude has always been crazy. We almost had to fire him for stealing printers, so yeah, it figures that he would do something like this.”

It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes out of this. The Broncos aren’t the Patriots and McDaniels isn’t Belichick. The Patriots lost their first round pick in 2008 because of “Spygate 1,” but they didn’t miss a beat. They’re still winning, they’re still in contention and it’s almost like the “Spygate” thing never happened. But if the Broncos lose a first rounder, you can bet that it’ll affect them at some point in the future.

Following the Broncos’ 49-29 dismantling of the Chiefs on Sunday, Kansas City coach Todd Haley went to midfield and instead of shaking Josh McDaniels’ hand, he angrily pointed his figure at McDaniels and stormed off.

Just so you know I didn’t concoct this story on my own, here’s the video:

The Broncos led 35-10 at halftime and scored just once more in each of the final two quarters, but apparently Haley thought Denver should have taken a knee at the start of the third quarter.

Some will say that it wasn’t very sportsmanlike of the Broncos to keep throwing in the fourth quarter, but it’s not like the Chiefs were completely inept offensively. Matt Cassel threw for over 400 yards and four touchdowns, so clearly Kansas City wasn’t content to take a loss and get out of dodge as quickly as possible. Nor should they have been.

Football games last 60 minutes. There was no give up in the Chiefs and Haley shouldn’t have expected his opponents to give up either. Just because Kansas City had the better record and was in first place at the start of the day doesn’t mean Denver should have laid down for them.

There’s an unwritten rule in baseball that I absolutely loathe. Teams that are up “big” late in games aren’t supposed to steal as a courtesy to their opponent. But if a team doesn’t want to get run on when its getting its ass kicked, then it should try throwing runners out.

I’ll offer the same advice to Haley. The last time I checked, the Chiefs were playing with 11 players on defense. They weren’t at a disadvantage so if they wanted McDaniels and company to stop scoring, then they should have stopped the Broncos. It’s that simple.

There are only 16 games on a NFL schedule. Most seasons, a team has to win at least nine of those 16 games to make the playoffs and sometimes that’s not even enough.

Forty-five players can be active on Sundays. Of those 45 players, usually two are quarterbacks and a third is named the emergency signal caller in case of injury.

With this in mind, I wonder why Josh McDaniels has decided not to use rookie Tim Tebow in special packages – especially with running back Knowshon Moreno out with a hamstring injury.

I’m not a big Tebow fan. I think he’s a massive project and I have serious doubts that he’ll be a productive starting quarterback one day in the NFL. But that’s just my opinion. Obviously McDaniels and the scouts in Denver see something in him, which is why they traded multiple picks to move up in April’s draft to select him in the first round. One day, Tebow will be the starter in Denver, although it won’t be this year and chances are it won’t be in 2011 either.

So why not get Tebow involved now? He can obviously run, as he proved that at Florida. His passing mechanics are still a work in progress, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t line up in the Wildcat formation and throw the ball out of a run-pass option. McDaniels thinks it’s “ridiculous” to use Tebow in short yardage situations, but I would venture to say that it’s more ridiculous for a head coach not to use all of the weapons that are at his disposal.

What is McDaniels worried about? That his quarterback of the future could get hurt running the ball? Tebow is a runner at heart – he’s not going to stop running when he becomes a starter.

Is McDaniels worried that Tebow is going to make a mistake to cost the Broncos a game? All young players make mistakes – it’s inevitable.

I don’t get why a team like the Broncos that lacks offensive punch would leave a potential weapon like Tebow on the bench. I’m not suggesting he start over Kyle Orton – now that would be ridiculous. But seeing as how Laurence Maroney was stuffed at the goal line last week in a loss to the Colts, maybe it’s time for McDaniels to consider all of his options.

Good head coaches know how to utilize all of their talent. It’s one of the things that gives them an advantage on Sunday.