Buccaneers rookie FB Rick Razzano was suspended four games by the NFL for violating the league’s steroid policy. Here’s a quote from the article:
“I take full responsibility for my mistake and encourage all athletes to be fully aware of all substances which may be prohibited by the NCAA or their respective sports and leagues,” Razzano said.
Is it just me or are we hearing more and more insincere PR-type apologies from athletes and celebrities these days?
Thoroughly frustrated with ABC’s decision not to broadcast the Texas / Ohio St. game in HDTV (contradicting information on their own website), I searched the web the other day and stumbled upon a great resource for sports fans with HDTV – the HD Sports Guide. If you’re wondering what sporting events are going to be broadcast in HDTV on any given day, you can find out there. For instance, it appears that both the FSU / BC game (on ESPN) and the Florida / Tennessee game (on CBS) will be broadcast in beautiful HDTV this Saturday.
If you’re not watching sports in HD, you’re missing out. Check out this article that I wrote for the folks at Bullz-eye.com a while ago.
Tough day for the Angels yesterday. Hoping to get some help from Curt Schilling and the Red Sox, the Halos instead saw the A’s rough Schilling up for four runs in 6.2 innings en route to a 6-2 win. Then, with ace Bartolo Colon on the mound, the Angels still managed to lose to Detroit 8-6 despite two homers from reigning MVP Vlad Guerrero. The Oakland win and LA loss created a deadlock atop the AL West standings with the A’s and Angels both sitting at 81-65.
But even worse for LA, Guerrero left the game early after injuring his shoulder and is currently listed as day-to-day. It’s the same shoulder he dislocated in May, an injury that shelved the right fielder for three weeks. The Angels say this injury isn’t nearly as severe (they’re calling it a jammed shoulder), but we’ll see. The Angels have been staggering of late, getting swept in Seattle before losing to Detroit last night, and they’re dead in the water if Guerrero is out for an extended period of time.
Meanwhile, the Yankees continued to exact some revenge from the pesky Devil Rays last night, finishing off the series sweep 9-5, their fourth-straight win and eighth in their last 11 games. With the Indians idle Thursday night, the Yankees now sit a half game behind Cleveland in the Wild Card standings while the A’s and Angels are three back.
The interesting thing about the AL standings is, while the Yanks, Indians and, up until last night, A’s are all fighting for the Wild Card, all three teams are still very much alive in their division races. The Yankees sit just 1.5 games behind the Red Sox, Cleveland is 4.5 behind Chicago in the Central and, as I noted earlier, the A’s and Angels are in a dead heat in the West.
Even better, the schedule makers deserve some credit for the drama that’s about to unfold. Oakland and LA meet for a four-game series from September 26-29, the Yankees and Red Sox close the season with a three-game series in Fenway, and the Indians and White Sox meet up twice more: in Chicago for three (Sept. 19-21) and then in Cleveland for the final three games of the year.
Admittedly, I’m an Indians fan so this may sound biased, but the Tribe is getting into the playoffs, whether it’s via the AL Central crown or the Wild Card. Aside from those six games against the Sox, Cleveland closes with seven against the Royals and three more against Tampa Bay. Their starting pitching has been sensational, they’ve got the best bullpen in the AL and they can swing the lumber. This team is too hot, too hungry and too talented to not finish it off. In the West, I would’ve given the edge to the Angels because the A’s are still without hot-shot starter Rich Harden, who’s better than Barry Zito right now, but this Guerrero injury could swing the advantage back to Oakland. And in the East, I don’t see the Sox blowing it. The Yankees are hot right now and Randy Johnson has been much more effective in his last four starts but they still have too many holes in their rotation to pull off the comeback. It may not happen until that final series in Boston, but the Sox will finish off the Yankees at some point.
My picks?
EAST: Boston
CENTRAL: Cleveland
WEST: Oakland
WC: Chicago
An October without the Yankees? How fucking sweet would that be?
Every week, we suggest a few marginal players to start or bench based on their match-ups and situations. If you are still troubled by your fantasy roster this week, feel free to post a question on our Q&A.
First, let’s see how we did last week:
START
Tom Brady – 306 yards passing, 2 TDs
Mike Anderson – 4 carries, 5 yards (injured in first quarter)
Willie Parker – 209 total yards, 1 TD
Isaac Bruce – 3 catches, 61 yards, 1 TD
BENCH
David Carr – 70 yards passing, 3 INTs, 1 fumble, 40 yards rushing, rush TD
Reuben Droughns – 100 total yards
Rod Smith – 7 catches, 90 yards
Ashley Lelie – 2 catches, 17 yards
On to this week’s picks:
START
QB – Carson Palmer
Palmer is coming off of a fine game against the Browns and faces a questionable Minnesota defense this week. I expect that the Vikings offense will bounce back, so this should be a high scoring affair.
RB – Ahman Green
There may be a few owners out there considering benching Green this week. Don’t do it. He’s facing the Browns and Javon Walker is out for the year, which means he’ll even be a bigger part of the gameplan.
WR – Eddie Kennison
With the Chiefs playing the Raiders, this is the week to start Kennison. Just like the CIN/MIN matchup, this one should be a high scoring affair.
BENCH
QB – Chad Pennington
The Jets QB had a horrible game last week and struggled with velocity on his throws. This week, he’s facing a tough Miami pass defense – bench him.
RB – Carnell Williams
The rookie blew up last week for 148 yards rushing, but this week he’s facing a tough Bill defense that shut down Domanick Davis last week. Bench him if you have decent RB depth.
WR – Eric Moulds / Lee Evans
Buffalo didn’t throw much last week and Losman was efficient but not terribly impressive at QB. The Bills are going up a against a stout Tampa Bay defense, who made Daunte Culpepper look like a fool last week.
KEY INJURIES
Jamal Lewis – P
Kyle Boller – O
Cedric Benson – Q
Lee Suggs – Q
Mike Anderson – Q
Jason Hanson – Q
Javon Walker – O (for season)
Dallas Clark – Q
Mewelde Moore – Q
Duce Staley – Q
Jerome Bettis – Q
Eric Johnson – Q
John Hall – Q
The biggest game of the week involves the SEC showdown between #6 Florida and #5 Tennessee. Urban Meyer has Gator fans giddy again, while Tennesse opened with a not-so-impressive win over UAB. I’ve compiled some perspectives on the game from “experts” around the web.
John Harris of CollegeFootballNews.com sees Florida winning a close one. Money quotes:
“Typically, Florida comes into this game with a powerful offense and a ho-hum defense. Even though they’ve tangled with Wyoming and La. Tech, you can see that this might be the most talented unit since the 1998 bunch that featured Jevon Kearse and Fred Weary. LB Brandon Siler is a beast inside and he’ll have it out for Gerald Riggs all game long. The Tennessee secondary, on the other hand, got sliced by Leak last year and the revamped unit got shredded in the second half against UAB. The implication is that Gator WR Chad Jackson has to be licking his chops. Although UT has left Gainesville the last two times with a W, the Gators should end that short streak on Saturday. Florida – 29 vs. Tennessee – 27”
Yet Harris sees Casey Clausen as an asset for the Vols:
“Since Clausen became the starter late in the 2004 season, he’s been tremendous, even when he’s come into the game in a relief role as he did against UAB. The one trait that Clausen seems to have over Erik Ainge and even over his older brother is the ability to see the whole field and find the mismatch, if one exists. He uses the whole field and will find any of his versatile wide receivers anywhere on the field. The senior doesn’t seem to get rattled and he seems to have the respect of the entire offense. Now, he’s going to see a much more athletic and better defense than Ainge saw last year in Knoxville, and he’ll have his hands full with that bunch. But, Clausen has a guy named Riggs that can help take some of the focus off of the nifty lefty, so keep an eye on how much play action the Vols use and how successful he is in finding the open man in the intermediate to deep areas of the field.”
The Palm Beach Post questions whether Chris Leak can get it done for the Gators:
“Quarterback Chris Leak might never fit Urban Meyer’s offense as well as Alex Smith did at Utah last season. Leak is off to a so-so start, despite a school-record 17 straight completions, which featured four shovel passes and two screens, in the opener against Wyoming. On Saturday, he floated several throws into coverage that a team better than Louisiana Tech might have intercepted. Leak’s longest run was 5 yards, and he’s averaging less than half a yard on 17 carries. He should improve, but must do so against Tennessee, Alabama and LSU.”
The Gators are favored by 6.5 points. That seems high to me. The game is just too close call.
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