Month: January 2009 (Page 12 of 61)

      Peter King: Favre will retire this offseason

      January 26, 2009 /

      Peter King of Sports Illustrated.com said Monday on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” that he believes Brett Favre will retire this offseason.

      From Rotoworld.com:

      King says Favre knows he can still play, but likely “won’t play if he can’t play where he wants to play.” King also said Favre isn’t willing to have doctor-recommended surgery on the torn biceps in his throwing arm he played through last year. The Jets will probably go with Kellen Clemens as their starter if Favre retires. They could also bring in a high pick to push Brett Ratliff and Erik Ainge for the backup job. The free agent QB market isn’t enticing.

      I understand that it was King who said that Favre, “won’t play if he can’t play where he wants to play,” but if Brett truly has that line of thinking than that’s ridiculous. Favre is an NFL legend – one of the best to have ever played the game. He’ll go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history and his career has been nothing short of brilliant. But he’s still under contract with the Jets and unless they don’t want him (which they might not), than he should play in New York next season if he doesn’t retire.

      Comment fodder: Should great players at the end of their career get to choose where they want to finish? In other words, has Favre earned the right to play where he wants to next season just because he’s Brett – even though he’s still under contract with the Jets?

      NFL

      Top 10 Sports Fight Songs

      January 26, 2009 /

      The Love of Sports ranked the top 10 sports fight songs:

      3. “Brass Bonanza” – Hartford Whalers
      This amazing tune was the fight song of the Hartford Whalers hockey team, now known as the Carolina Hurricanes, of course. It’s part elevator music, part cheesy sports movie soundtrack, part magic. Hard to imagine why anybody in Hartford would ever let the team leave Connecticut.

      2. Miami Dolphins Fight Song
      It’s surprising that anybody talks about the Miami Dolphins’ fight song anymore, because the banjo-laden and grammatically incorrect tune certainly takes listeners back to an earlier era. However, the upbeat tempo and positivity that oozes from the fight song makes it hard to resist.

      1. “When The Saints Come Marching In” – New Orleans Saints
      Though the song isn’t used exclusively by the Saints, it’s often associated with the team (like in that MasterCard commercial last year!). In actuality, the team was named after the song. Once covered by Louis Armstrong, the song isn’t just a part of football culture, but of American culture as well. Much like Peyton Manning, who’s transformed himself from an NFL quarterback to a television commercial superstar. But I digress.

      The Whalers’ jam sounds like an 80s sitcom theme song or something. It makes you want to bounce your head.

      Could you imagine some of the theme songs for teams now? All of the songs on TLOS’s top 10 list are all light and fun. If teams had their own theme songs nowadays it would probably be about ho’s, intravenous drug use and detailed ways to literally kill the other team.

      College Football, General Sports, Humor, MLB, NFL, Video

      Report: Yankees, Pettitte closing in on incentive-laden contract

      January 26, 2009 /

      According to ESPN.com, the Yankees and starter Andy Pettitte are close to agreeing to an incentive-laden, one-year contract.

      Andy PettitteThe deal, sources told Olney, could be done as soon as Monday afternoon. It would pay Pettitte nearly $6 million, with incentives that could make it worth as much as $12 million.

      Pettitte was 14-14 for the Yankees last season with a 4.54 ERA. He started 33 games. Pitching with a sore shoulder, he was 2-7 with a 6.23 ERA in his final 11 starts and missed his last turn of the season.
      It was his second season back in New York after three seasons with the Houston Astros.

      Pettitte began his career with the Yankees, pitching his first nine big league seasons in pinstripes. After last season, indications were that Pettitte and the Yankees wanted to make a deal, but were unable to come to terms on a dollar figure — until talks heated up this weekend.

      Pettitte earned $16 million last season.

      If he signs, Pettitte would join a projected starting rotation featuring CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain.

      So a $10 million, one-year contact wasn’t good enough for Pettitte two weeks ago, but an incentive-laden one-year contract is good enough now? I don’t get it.

      Pettitte’s greed cost him $4 million in guaranteed money. He thought he was worth more and could get more than what the Yankees were offering, but he must have realized that pitchers who go 14-14 with a 4.54 ERA (on a great offensive team by the way) don’t earn a lot on the open market.

      The Yankees won this battle if Pettitte signs.

      MLB

      Acee: GM wasn’t mocking LT

      January 26, 2009 /

      Kevin Acee of the San Diego Tribune writes that despite what many have perceived, Chargers’ GM A.J. Smith wasn’t mocking LaDainian Tomlinson last week when he repeated (almost word for word) what the running back said on his website about not having any control over whether or not he stays with the team or is traded.

      LaDainian TomlinsonI definitely see where that interpretation comes from. Repeating someone’s words to fashion your own quote would certainly not seem to be an attempt to show respect.

      But as the person who elicited the quote, I feel a certain unique ability to interpret Smith’s intent.
      For as abrupt, unpolished and even unfriendly as Smith can come off, I assure you he did not mean to mock LT.

      Was he unhappy that Tomlinson had once again gone public talking about how badly he wanted to stay in San Diego? Yes.

      Might Smith have been better served saying nothing? Yes.

      However, what Smith was simply addressing, in his own uniquely straight-forward way, was the reality of the situation.

      In a perfect world without limitations on money and salary cap, Smith would have Tomlinson stay a Charger, too. But given all the reasons that have been outlined ad nauseam over the past few weeks, that might not be possible. And tough decisions have to be made – by Smith.
      And again, Smith was not meaning to disrespect LT.

      If anything, his comments were a shot across the bow of the greater Tomlinson camp – namely agent Tom Condon – and what Smith perceived as repeated attempts to paint a certain picture.

      Sure looked like mocking to me. And if it wasn’t, then why go about it that way? If Smith wasn’t trying to mock LT, why repeat almost verbatim what the running back had said on his wesbite? Even, “I’m tired of answering these questions – I’ll let you know when I know more,” would have been better than what Smith did.

      And if Smith really wasn’t mocking LT, it’s hard to blame anyone who thought he was because he’s been a jerk throughout his entire career in San Diego. So why wouldn’t he be viewed a jerk in this situation? Again, Smith handled this entire situation poorly and all of this could have been avoided.

      NFL

      Vaccaro: Torre ruined his legacy

      January 26, 2009 /

      Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post writes that Joe Torre has ruined his legacy in the wake of his new book, which trashes Yankee management and takes shots his former players like Alex Rodriguez.

      Joe TorreThis book of yours, “The Yankee Years,” is that classy, Joe? Does it dignify what those 12 remarkable years were to baseball, to this city and, not incidentally, to your career? Was it necessary to air the fact that his teammates call Alex Rodriguez – an awfully easy target, by the way, Joe, and also a guy who won two MVPs while playing for you – “A-Fraud,” or to liken him to the crazed Jennifer Jason Leigh character in “Single White Female”?

      Seriously, Joe. Did you even see “Single White Female”?

      Why would you take shots at Brian Cashman? All he did during that lengthy post-2000 time, when you weren’t winning championships, was defend you exhaustively – to fans, to the press, to fellow Yankee executives, to various and sundry Steinbrenners, to your old front-office pal Randy Levine.

      You never much cared to admit this, Joe, but Cashman was your boss. He could have sold you out. He didn’t.

      Cashman deserved better, Joe. So did the Yankees. And, most important, so did you. You transformed yourself as a Yankee, earned yourself a certain Hall of Fame plaque.

      There were lots of people who thought you were exiled wrongly in 2007, who winced when you hinted at a possible grudge with the Yankees, who figured, no, Joe is bigger than that. Joe is better than that.

      Were we really that wrong, Joe? Really?

      If you wanted to hurt the Yankees, Joe, understand this: Yesterday at Legends Field in Tampa, workers were manicuring the field, watering the lawn, getting ready for another spring training once the Super Bowl leaves town.

      At the minor-league complex just down Dale Mabry Boulevard, kids were working out. Jorge Posada was said to have taken some swings. Derek Jeter will be here this week.

      The Yankees have moved on, Joe. Isn’t it time you did, too?

      I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – this doesn’t seem like Joe’s style.

      I haven’t read the book, but already this doesn’t seem like a classy way to go about things. No matter how wronged Torre believes he was by the Yankees, you always take the high road. Most people in New York were going to remember Joe as the World Series-winning manager in pinstripes – and they still might. But this book definitely casts a shadow over Torre’s great career. Instead of remembering how great of a manager he was in the Bronx, people are going to point to when he called Alex Rodriguez, “A-Fraud” in his book. Is that how Joe wanted to be remembered?

      MLB

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