Month: September 2006 (Page 25 of 30)

      As we all gear up for Week 1…

      September 6, 2006 /

      ESPN’s Bill Simmons has published his list of “Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down” as he gets ready for the NFL season.

      A few highlights:

      [THUMBS DOWN] To my least favorite story line of the preseason: Anything involving the words “Brett Favre” and “retirement.” Enough. I would rather watch footage of Barbaro grazing on newspaper sports sections that had stories about Barry Bonds, BALCO and the WNBA playoffs.

      [THUMBS UP] To new Vikings coach Brad Childress, who brought some much-needed discipline back to the Vikes, but with the added bonus that he looks like someone who’d wander into the kitchen of one of those “Dateline NBC: To Catch A Predator” shows holding a 12-pack of MGD and three adult DVDs. I love this guy. Couldn’t you picture him living in a trailer with Ron Gardenhire, wearing matching wife-beaters and fighting over Powerball tickets?

      [THUMBS DOWN] [Matt] Leinart lost me forever during the episode of “Punk’d” when the cops mock-arrested him and a friend for soliciting a prostitute, then agreed to drop Leinart’s charges if he sold out his buddy … followed by Leinart incredibly agreeing to do so … followed by an ecstatic Ashton Kutcher leaping out of a van to tell him he’d been Punk’d. Does that sound like something a great QB would do? Would Tom Brady or Brett Favre EVER sell a buddy like that? No way. That show told me everything I ever needed to know about Matt Leinart’s future as an NFL quarterback. Pencil them in for 6-10.

      [THUMBS UP] To the Ravens for bringing Brian Billick back, but only if he promised to relate better to his players and not have as big an ego. This is the same guy who once allowed himself to be filmed by HBO’s “Hard Knocks” crew reading Rick Pitino’s “Success is a Choice” while lying on a hammock. Now he’s supposed to rein it in? Yeah, right.

      [THUMBS EVERYWHERE] THUMBS EVERYWHERE: To the surreal Bledsoe-Owens tandem, which gives me the same giddy, get-ready-for-anything feeling I get every time Flava Flav is handing out clocks to drunken bimbos at the end of “Flava of Love.” Here’s Owens, the worst teammate alive, someone with a history of selling his QBs out and getting frustrated when they screw up … and they throw him together with the oversensitive Bledsoe, who takes more bad sacks, throws more dumb picks and fumbles the ball in more key spots than just about anyone? How could this possibly unfold smoothly?

      I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for some football.

      NFL

      NFL considering cracking tighter whip at steroid abusers

      September 6, 2006 /

      With new developments surfacing late last month in the 2003 Carolina Panthers-steroid scandal, the NFL and player’s union are pondering whether or not to tighten the league’s drug-testing program.

      A report from the AP that was posted on ESPN.com today, stated that the NFL could add more drugs to the banned list already in place. More frequent testing could also be put into place and the affects of both of these changes could happen as soon as this season.

      “We are in the process of re-evaluation, trying to determine if more is better, if it’s the right time to add substances, to add more tests,” Harold Henderson, the league’s executive vice president for labor relations, told the paper. “It might make sense to do some tweaking.”

      The NFL does approximately 10,000 tests for performance-enhancing drugs a year and there are about 2,000 players in the league. Players are randomly selected for testing and can be tested during the offseason.

      The NFL announced in June that it added amphetamines to the list of banned performance-enhancers starting this season.

      In my opinion, two arguments can essentially be made about this news.

      One way to look at things is that the NFL is recognizing they have a potentially severe issue on its hands and is quickly trying to rectify the problem before the situation gains even more public appeal. It’s nice to see that a massively popular league like the NFL is trying to keep its game as clean as possible and air on the side of caution while the MLB wallowed in its own garbage until the issue smelled so bad they had to clean it up.

      The second thought on this matter is a little too conspiracy theory for my taste, but certainly a point that can be argued. Many believe that although the NFL boasts of a clean program, players are often made aware of when they will get tested and therefore know how to beat the process. So the fact that more testing and banned substances could be added doesn’t hold much water considering the NFL will do whatever it has to do to protect its image.

      Either way, it appears that the NFL has figured out they have a bigger problem on its hands than originally thought.

      General Sports, NFL

      Smith tweaks hamstring

      September 6, 2006 /

      Steve Smith missed practice and is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against Atlanta.

      Smith missed most of training camp and the entire preseason with a left hamstring injury and an ingrown toenail. But Smith’s absence Wednesday was due to a different injury. Coach John Fox said Smith tweaked his other hamstring in Tuesday’s practice.

      The good news is it wasn’t the same hamstring. If it were, there would be a good chance that the injury would linger the entire season. This is a dangerous time for Smith as hamstring injuries have a tendency to flare up as the competitive spirit brings players back too soon. There is a difference between “tweaking” and “pulling” a hamstring, so hopefully – with three days of treatment – he’s able to play.

      Fantasy Football, NFL

      Can you survive?

      September 6, 2006 /

      If you like picking games during the NFL season, you’ll love the Ultimate Survival Pool. I’ve played the past couple of years and it’s a blast. The object of the game is to pick the winner of only one NFL game each week. NO POINT SPREADS CONSIDERED. If the team you pick wins in that week, you survive to the next week. If your team losses or ties, you are eliminated. Once you have selected a team, you can’t pick that team again for the rest of the season. The entry fee is $100.

      NFL

      The Pregame: Week 1

      September 6, 2006 /

      Each week in the Pregame, I’ll suggest a few fantasy players to start and a few players to sit based on strength of schedule (SOS) or that player’s particular situation. Right now, I’m working off SOS data from last season, and while defenses do change from year to year, most tend to stay the same. As the season goes on, the SOS data will be updated and should provide an even better picture of what should happen each week.

      I’m a strong advocate of always starting your studs, so I won’t be telling you about Shaun Alexander’s tough matchup or how Peyton Manning and company will light it up against a bad defense. Anyone can make those calls. I’ll be discussing marginal fantasy starters – guys that can start for you, but only under certain circumstances.

      START

      If you’ve got KURT WARNER on your roster, this is the week to start him. He’s healthy – which is a big plus – and he’s at home facing a porous 49er defense, which gave up a league-worst 277 passing yards and a second-worst 28 touchdowns last season…TRENT GREEN is also a good start. He faces a Cincinnati team that gave up an average of 223 yards per game last season. They did lead the league in picks, so if your league penalizes heavily for INTs, you may want to look elsewhere…This is a good week to start COREY DILLON. Laurence Maroney probably won’t play much and the Pats face a Buffalo team that allowed 138 ypg on the ground last season, along with a league-worst 22 rushing TDs. With the return of Takeo Spikes, the Bills’ rush defense should be improved, but Dillon is still a solid start…DESHAUN FOSTER is injury-prone, but he’s healthy this week and he faces the Falcons, who gave up 129 rushing ypg last season, along with 18 rushing TDs. Get some use out of Foster while you can…LEE EVANS looks like a nice start. He faces the Pats who had a lot of injuries last season, allowing 231 passing ypg. While the Pats should be improved, they do have concerns and Evans is poised for a breakout season.

      SIT

      If you have another option, BRETT FAVRE should probably ride the pine this week. The Bears defense allowed a league low 10 pass TDs last season while only yielding 180 yards per game through the air. Green Bay has serious offensive line issues and their receiver corps is unsettled, so it would be surprising if Favre came out and had a great game…If possible, DREW BREES should also be avoided. He’s on the road against a Browns team that was pretty good against the pass (179 ypg) last season…JULIUS JONES faces a tough Jacksonville defense that only allowed four rushing TDs last season. It’s not clear how Bill Parcells is going to split the load between he and Marion Barber, so the situation should be avoided if at all possible…This might not be the week to try out MATT JONES or ERNEST WILFORD in your lineup. Dallas was pretty good against the pass last season and was especially good at limiting opposing WRs.

      INJURY UPDATE

      STEVE SMITH tweaked his other hamstring, and is now listed as questionable for Week 1…CLINTON PORTIS still hasn’t practiced, but the Redskins don’t play until Monday night, so there’s still time for him to hit the field…BRAYLON EDWARDS won’t be starting but he will play Week 1…As previously reported, BEN ROETHLISBERGER will miss the first game due to an emergency appendectomy…DARRELL JACKSON and HINES WARD are expected to play in Week 1. Both players missed a significant part of the preseason with injuries, and are currently listed as “questionable”…JAMAL LEWIS and DERRICK MASON are also expected to play.

      Fantasy Football, NFL

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑