Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 1309 of 1503)

Tony Dungy will return as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 2008 according to The Indianapolis Star. Reports surfaced last week that he might step down and that assistant head coach Jim Caldwell would take over.

“I’m here to announce that Tony Dungy is still our coach,” team owner Jim Irsay said this afternoon at a press conference at the team’s West 56th Street facility.

Dungy informed the team today of his decision, which was arrived at after he consulted with his wife, Lauren, at the family’s home in Tampa, Fla.

“I love this franchise. I love my family. My decision after my 10th year was, ‘Can I give my family and the franchise the energy and passion that they both deserve,’ Dungy said. “I look at this job as a job but I also look at it as a ministry.

“I’m happy to be back,” said Dungy, calling today’s announcement a “mutual decision” between him and his wife. “My whole family’s happy and hopefully our team and everyone here is happy.”

It’s good to see someone take some time to make a decision as big as this. Obviously Dungy didn’t let the media or anyone else hinder his decision about whether or not to return. He’s a damn fine coach and surely Colts fans are glad to have him back.

I wonder if Caldwell will ask the Falcons to re-consider him for their head coaching vacancy again. At the time the rumors surfaced about Dungy possibly retiring, Caldwell withdrew his name from consideration for both the Ravens and Falcons’ head coaching positions.

The girlfriend of Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver Cedrick Wilson was arrested Sunday after a nearly 12-hour standoff with police resulted in 70 neighbors being evacuated from Wilson’s home.

Lindsey Paulat, 26, of Tarentum, was charged with aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person, KDKA-TV reported.

Robert Amman of the Northern Regional Police Department told the television station that the standoff began a few hours after an argument Saturday morning between Wilson and Paulat. Wilson left his Pine Township home about noon and Paulat’s mother came to talk to her.

While her mother was there, Paulat fired two shots from Wilson’s handgun into a wall, police said. No one was injured.

Paulat’s mother left and police were called around 1 p.m.; neighbors were later evacuated as a precaution. The standoff ended when Paulat threw the gun from the front door, police said.

She was taken into custody about 12:45 a.m. Sunday.

Wilson needs to look at the bright side. Sure, on one hand, he has two bullet holes in his wall and he and his girlfriend won’t be asked over to the neighbor’s house for the next block party. On the other hand, however, his home is still standing, which is more than Andre Rison could say in 1994 after he got into an argument with then girlfriend, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and she burned his $861,000 mansion to the ground.

There’s a silver lining in every storm cloud, folks.

SPORTSbyBROOKS.com downloaded this little rant by Chargers’ center Nick Hardwick on the Pats’ Richard Seymour following San Diego’s 21-12 loss to New England Sunday.

“He’s cheap and dirty and the head man just let him get away with it the whole time. They’ve got 10 great players on that team and when Jarvis Green comes on the field, they’ve got 11 great players who compete how you’re supposed to play. But Richard Seymour is the biggest (expletive) I’ve ever played.”

“Head slapping, foot stomping in the pile, running by and throwing punches in your back. He’s a (expletive). … There were a lot of things he did. There’s a field goal where he was stomping feet. Who stomps feet? And the officials weren’t doing anything about it. He plays like a punk.”

Hardwick’s rant reminds me of a time when one Clark W. Griswold went off about how his no-good boss didn’t hand out Christmas bonuses one year.

Patriots 21, Chargers 12
Laurence Maroney (25 carries, 122 yards, 1 TD) saved this game for the Patriots in the second half, because before he found running room in the third quarter, Tom Brady and the rest of the offense looked rather ordinary. In fact, Brady looked uncharacteristically bad, throwing three interceptions including one in the red zone. Was it just me or did Major Tom look out of it for most of this game? San Diego’s defense did a great job of getting just enough pressure on Brady to get him out of sync and dare I say it, rattled. Unfortunately for them, however, they just couldn’t stop Maroney and Kevin Faulk (he made two spectacular catches in the fourth quarter) in the second half…San Diego’s offense did nothing in the red zone despite having success against NE’s defense. And when they managed to get three points, their ensuing kickoffs were ridiculously short and often gave the Pats solid field position. It didn’t help that Philip Rivers could barely walk, either, but he deserves major credit for gutting it out. In the end, with a gimpy Rivers and no LT, the Chargers just didn’t have enough firepower offensively to keep up. If they did, they might have won because the Pats certainly weren’t at their best.

Giants 23, Packers 20 OT
As much as Lawrence Tynes tried to give the game away, Eli freaking Manning is going to the Super Bowl. Holy crap. Give the Giants credit; not many people gave them a chance to go into Green Bay and beat everybody’s darling, Brett Favre, but that’s exactly what they did. They were physical, didn’t make a ton of mistakes and made plays in crucial situations. This was a well deserved win and football fans everywhere need to give Eli his due, because he’s played very good football over the past month. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is going to have a chance to possibly earn a head coaching (Atlanta?) job if he can contain the Patriots’ high-powered attack in two weeks. His game plan was outstanding and his play calling in the second half is what won this game for the G-Men…As for the Pack, they shot themselves in the foot multiple times in the second half. You just can’t give a team multiple opportunities to sustain drives after you already had them stopped on third down. How many stupid penalties did Green Bay’s defense commit to give the Giants new life? Offensively, what essentially doomed the Packers is what many people worried about in the beginning of the year: The lack of a running game. NY shut Ryan Grant down, took away the deep pass and flustered Brett Favre. Also, why the Pack kept calling screen passes was beyond me; clearly the Giants had those plays sniffed out. It seemed after Favre threw the fourth quarter interception, GB got ultra conservative with the play calling. I know this doesn’t mean much after a loss like this, but Packer fans, you had a great run this season.

Michael Strahan is well aware that Brett Favre is America’s favorite quarterback right now and quite frankly, he’s sick of it.

“I look at all the stories and everything that’s been written that is like, ‘This is Brett’s last swan song,’ or his [last] chance to go the Super Bowl and all that stuff, and I look at it as the same way for me,” Strahan said…

That’s why Strahan surveyed a room crammed with reporters and cameras at Giants Stadium yesterday and wonder aloud: What about us? “Brett being the great player that he is, the Hall of Famer that he is, everybody is going to probably focus on that a little bit more for him,” Strahan said.

“[But] we all feel the same way about ourselves.” Acknowledging Toomer and Feagles, Strahan said: “[Favre] has a ring. He can hang it up and say, ‘I was a Super Bowl champion at some point.’ But all of us don’t have that, and some of us are still pressing to get it.”

You tell them, Gap Tooth.