While he claims it wasn’t just a statement made in the heat of the moment, nobody would blame Lewis if it were. Lewis is 30, has seen his play drop quite a bit this year and he’s stuck on a morbid franchise. So why stick around?
I honestly don’t know how the Browns have won a game this year. Their defense is bad, but it pails in comparison to how atrocious Derek Anderson and the offense is, which turned the ball over five times on Sunday. Chicago’s secondary has been shredded at times this season, yet Anderson found a way to only complete 6-of-17 pass attempts for a measly 76 yards. Oh, and he also threw two interceptions and fumbled once.
I’m sure someone will raise the question of whether or not Brady Quinn should resume the starting spot over Anderson next week. But Quinn has already shown that he’s just as incapable of running the offense as Anderson is, so does it really matter? If I were a Cleveland fan (and I just threw up a little at the mere thought of that), I’d rather see Brett Ratliff given a chance to start before Quinn is given a second opportunity.
About the only reason to watch the Browns these days is to see whether or not defensive coordinator Rob Ryan will get in a fight with anyone on the sidelines. He and Jay Cutler went at it (verbally, of course) on Sunday and it was the only entertainment Cleveland provided all day.
With their 31-10 win over the Bills in Week 8, the Texans won their third straight game to improve to 5-3 on the season. But as ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports, Houston lost tight end Owen Daniels for the season due to a knee injury.
Daniels suffered the injury on a play in the first quarter of Sunday’s win. He racked up 39 receptions, 497 yards and five touchdowns coming into Week 8 and was emerging as one of the NFL’s best tight ends, if not the best.
Joel Dressen and rookie James Casey will try to fill the void left by Daniels in Houston’s offense. Casey caught two passes for 14 yards on Sunday, but won’t be nearly as effective as Daniels was for quarterback Matt Schaub.
Although Daniels’ injury certainly puts a damper on things, the Texans have to love heading into the second half with a winning record. But next week is huge, as they play in Indianapolis before taking their bye in Week 10. After their bye, Houston has winnable games against the Titans, Jaguars, Seahawks and Rams, although they do play the undefeated Colts twice, as well as the Dolphins and Patriots.
According to a report by the Kansas City Star, the Chiefs and troubled running back Larry Johnson are working on some kind of settlement that would decide LJ’s future with the team.
Asked whether that settlement would involve a separation from the team, (Johnson’s agent) Schaffer said: “Not necessarily.”
Schaffer said Johnson’s side is working on an appeal of the two-week suspension the team handed down Wednesday for detrimental conduct. Schaffer said Wednesday night that he hoped an appeal would be filed early Thursday, and it’s possible that settlement talks could delay that appeal.
Johnson would lose more than $600,000 if he serves the full two-week suspension. He also could face further punishment from the league and the Chiefs when this suspension expires Nov. 9.
This situation seems a little ridiculous. Johnson was out of line, the Chiefs suspended him and will decide his future with the team over the course of the next two weeks. So what is there to “settle?”
There’s a good chance that Johnson will never play another down with the Chiefs, so maybe the team is trying to work out a deal where LJ gets to keep part of his contract if he just goes away. Then again, there have been reports that the Chiefs don’t want to outright release him because then it provokes other players to act up if they want to get out of town. So I don’t know what to think at this point.
For the past couple days, I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out why in the world the Panthers would stick with Jake Delhomme at quarterback.
To say that Delhomme has struggled this year would be a gross understatement. He is 2-4 as a starter, is leading the league in interceptions and has somehow found a way to make explosive receiver Steve Smith non-existent. So why stick with him instead of giving A.J. Feeley or Matt Moore an opportunity?
One reason is because the Panthers have so much money invested in Delhomme after they signed him to a five-year, $42.5 million extension in April. They thought Delhomme would shake off his brutal performance in last year’s playoffs and at the very least, be able to turn around and hand the ball off to DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart.
But Delhomme has been a disaster thus far and head coach John Fox is taking a huge risk in sticking with him. If Delhomme continues to struggle and Fox doesn’t make a move, then he’s basically saying to upper management that he can’t evaluate his own players Neither Feeley nor Moore would come in and light the world on fire, but as long as they didn’t turn the ball over they’d be more efficient than Delhomme.
Fox better hope Delhomme turns things around or else they both could be gone at the end of the year. The Panthers have been a model organization for inconsistency under Fox and I highly doubt management would stick with a head coach that can’t make a change when one is needed. Fox is essentially putting all his eggs in the Jake Delhomme basket and that’s a risky endeavor to say the least.
Following the Chiefs’ embarrassing loss to the Chargers on Sunday, running back Larry Johnson took a couple verbal swipes at head coach Todd Haley via his Twitter page, then proceeded to use a homophobic slur to degrade another Twitter user.
• “my father got more creditentials than most of these pro coaches. … google my father!!!!!!!”
• “My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans”. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn”
Following those messages, an exchange appeared between Johnson’s account and another Twitter user, in which the other user made a reference to an incident in which Johnson pled guilty to disturbing the peace after allegedly spitting into the face of a female patron at a nightclub. A message on Johnson’s account referred to the other Twitter user’s profile picture with a homophobic slur, calling it a “[expletive] pic” and called the user a “Christopher street boy.” Christopher Street is a well-known New York City street which became famous as a symbol for the city’s gay-pride movement.
The message posted in Johnson’s account containing the homophobic slur read:
• “think bout a clever diss then that wit ur [expletive] pic. Christopher street boy. Is what us east coast cats call u.”
The final message of the night on Johnson’s account read:
• “Make me regret it. Lmao. U don’t stop my checks. Lmao. So “tweet” away.”
Johnson’s agent tried to put out the fire claiming that Johnson was just trying to pump his father up and didn’t mean to degrade Haley. But it’s pretty clear by Johnson’s tweets that he was taking a shot at his head coach.
This isn’t the first time that Johnson has gotten into a controversial situation off the field. He has had four arrests for various degrees of battery since the Chiefs drafted him in 2003, including an incident in which he spat in the face of a female at a nightclub. That incident cost him a one-game suspension.
Outside of a potential cap hit (which would be in excess of over $8 million), what’s stopping GM Scott Pioli from dumping Johnson now? LJ turns 30 in November, is averaging a career-worst 2.7 yards per carry and he continues to be a distraction. I realize he has been on his best behavior under the new regime up until this point, but this Twitter situation seems like another one of his attempts to get traded. The Chiefs are trying to move in a new direction under Haley and Pioli and they can’t do it if everyone isn’t on the same page.
If Johnson doesn’t fit into their long-term plans, then KC should cut bait and move on. Every year teams find running back gems in the draft and Pioli is one of the best player evaluators in the NFL. They could easily find a more productive running back and one that has less baggage.
Again, the cap hit would be tough for the Chiefs to swallow, but Johnson hasn’t done squat since he signed his new contract a couple years ago. The positives of cutting LJ seem to outweigh the negatives.
Post columnist Steve Serby began his column in Monday’s editions with “Good for Tom Coughlin. Good for Coughlin for tightening the noose around Plaxico Burress.”
Burress has been fined and benched by the Giants for infractions including tardiness and missing practices. On Saturday, the wide receiver skipped a treatment for his neck, and was benched during the first quarter of the Giants’ win in Pittsburgh Sunday.
In criticizing Burress, Serby used a racially loaded and offensive term, Sharpton told the Daily News. “To make such a blatant racist statement about an African-American football player with a neck injury is completely unacceptable,” Sharpton said. “Clearly, the racial connotation is very disturbing. … This is the verbal reflection of a hanging noose.”
Sharpton said that if the Post did not acknowledge that the column was offensive, he would further highlight the issue but he did not specify what steps he would take. “They have to act swiftly,” Sharpton said. “If we don’t see action, I will lay out exactly what that is … we would like to talk to someone there about whether it was the writer or editor who let this in.”
Why any writer would even hint at anything that could be construed as racist is beyond me. And for an editor at the Post to not have the wherewithal to see that what Serby wrote could potentially be a problem is unconceivable, too.
But my understanding of the word “racism” is to have hatred towards another person because of their skin color. Now I don’t know Serby personally, but it’s probably safe to say that he doesn’t hate Plaxico Burress because of his skin color. He used an incredibly poor choice of words (seriously, there are millions of words in the English language and you go with noose?), but what he wrote is being taken out of context.
That said, the power of words can be incredibly damaging and Serby was flat out insensitive (and shortsighted for that matter). People should use their brains over their emotions to decipher what he meant, but still, I completely understand why Sharpton and others would be upset over this.
Apparently Eli Manning needs to do a better job of covering his mouth in the huddle. During the Giants’ 21-14 win over the Steelers on Sunday, Pittsburgh players knew what play New York was going to run when they stopped Brandon Jacobs short of the goal line in the first half because Manning accidentally tipped the off.
Defensive end Brett Keisel overheard Manning mouthing the play call and lined up the defense before Jacobs was stopped inches short of the goal line on the fourth-and-1 play early in the second quarter.
The goal-line stand — Jacobs failed on three successive plays to get in from the 1 — temporarily preserved Pittsburgh’s 7-3 lead.
“I was watching Eli’s lips the whole time and I saw him say, ’32,’ so I went over and tried to tell everyone, ‘It’s right here,’ and we stopped it,” Keisel said. “That was a big play in the game.”
Asked if he heard Manning yell out the play call, Keisel said, “Yeah.”
Actually Brett, the big play in the game was when your long snapper snapped the ball over your punter’s head for a safety that tied the game at 14-14 in the second half. Then the bigger play was when you and your teammates allowed Manning to march up the field for a game-winning touchdown.
Your play was the big play in the first half. The big play of the game was the touchdown that allowed the Giants to win the game.
You could have heard writers in Tennessee and Indianapolis pound away at their keyboards at halftime of the Monday Night Football game. They were writing things like, “The Colts are back” and “The Titans won’t be able to win without a passing game.”
After one half of football, Indy had led the Titans 7-6 and their usually Swiss-cheese front seven was surprisingly stuffing the Titans’ powerful running attack. Veteran quarterback Kerry Collins has been lauded for his game management skills this year, but essentially criticized for not making enough big plays in the passing game.
But that all changed in the second half as Collins found open receivers in the second half and killed the Colts secondary with timely passes on big third down plays. The Titans managed to score 25 second half points in rout to a convincing 31-21 win, which is not only significant because they remain the only undefeated team in the league, but also because they got the proverbial monkey that is the Indianapolis Colts off their back.
Anyone who is still waiting for the Titans to crash down to earth can put those opinions to rest. They’re clearly the best team in the AFC and while it’s still hard to believe they won’t lose a couple games this year, they should have one of the top two playoffs spots locked up eventually. (Especially with the Pats, Colts and Chargers down this year.)
As for the Colts, I don’t know what Tony Dungy was thinking going for it on 4th and 1 at midfield early in the second. The game was tied 14-14 and Tennessee’s defense was starting to tighten up. I realize he has all those offense weapons at his disposal and should be able to pick up one yard, but why go with a run up the gut then? It completely shifted the momentum in the Titans’ favor and that proved to be the difference in the game. The Colts are pressing and worse, they’re in a ton of trouble.
Outstanding. Somebody needs to light a fire under Vernon Davis’ ass and there might be no one better than Singletary. That team needs passion and something to play for after Mike Nolan was fired and I’m glad Singletary is getting a shot, although that was an ugly start to his interim career.
FOX Sports has learned that both of the Minnesota Vikings’ Pro Bowl defensive tackles, Kevin Williams and Pat Williams, are also facing suspensions for testing positive for the same product. Losing one of the Williams would be a major blow to the Vikings but to possibly lose both would serve as a major blow to the NFC North contenders.
The Williams aren’t the only defensive tackles facing the penalty as well. FOX Sports has also learned that the Falcons’ Grady Jackson tested positive for the water pill and is facing a four-game ban just like the other players who are currently fighting the suspension.
Water pills are deemed illegal in the NFL because they can be used to mask positive steroid tests. However, considering the players who have tested positive, the intent appears to be to cut weight, and not for a masking agent.
Many of the players who have taken the product have long used water pills in order to make weight as the show up to camp or in order to make certain weight on a weekly basis. Guys like the Williams duo, Grady Jackson, Charles Grant appear on the surface to clearly fall under this reasoning.
It’s a shame that players who use such pills, which are readily available at drug stores and health food stores, are swept in the same category as those who try test positive for juicing.
Some reports have incorrectly stated that these players have test positive for steroids, but water diuretics aren’t in the same class and certainly don’t have the same affects. But the problem is that they can be used to mask other performance-enhancing drugs (including steroids) and the league can’t decipher which players are using the diuretics to cut weight, and which ones are using them to hide the use of other drugs. Unfortunately there might not be an easy answer to resolve the problem, either.
