Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 963 of 1503)

      MMA Review for Friday, January 30

      January 30, 2009 /

      Jens PulverHere’s a weekly rundown of MMA content from Ben Goldstein of CagePotato.com:

      – Affliction’s “Day of Reckoning” event featured an unbelievable knockout and possibly the worst color-commentary in sports history.

      – After taking his third-consecutive loss last Sunday, MMA pioneer Jens Pulver may be considering retirement.

      – Cancel your Curves membership: The UFC is launching its own chain of gyms.

      – WEC welterweight champ Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit has been poached by the UFC, and will be making his Octagon debut on April 1st against Martin Kampmann.

      – Brazilian jiu-jitsu co-founder Helio Gracie died at the age of 95. According to his granddaughter, he once choked out a shark.

      – Swing by CagePotato.com tomorrow night starting at 10 p.m. ET as we liveblog UFC 94, which will feature the historic superfight between lightweight champion BJ Penn and welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. For a preview of the action, check out this in-depth analysis of the main events and this on-the-scene report. And please sign our petition to get MMA legalized in New York State!

      Mixed Martial Arts

      London could have its own NFL team in “10 to 12 years”

      January 30, 2009 /

      Commissioner Roger Goodell is suggesting that London could have its own NFL team in the next decade or so.

      London is expected to have its own NFL team within the next 10 to 12 years, according to a senior league official.

      NFL boss Roger Goodell suggested the possibility of a team during the annual game at Wembley last October.

      And Mark Waller, NFL head of sales and marketing, said: “The commissioner and I have talked about 10 years so that’s mentally how we’re framing it.

      “Would we be hugely disappointed if it’s not 10 and it’s 12? No, but that’s the goal,” he told BBC 5 Live.

      “We plan rigorously. There is a view for the future. We’ve taken a west coast team [to London] this year in San Diego and we’ve proved the logistics of that work,” he explained.

      “This year we’re going to have games going on in London and Toronto at the same time so we definitely have a way forward.”

      Come on, seriously? I think it’s great that NFL is reaching out to other countries and having one game played overseas is fine. But giving London their own team? Then what, eight teams will have to travel to London every year as part of their road games? And the London Fill in Team Name Here will have to travel to the States for eight games?

      I don’t like it. There are more than enough teams in the league now – stop expanding.

      NFL

      Greg Cossell uses immense film study to predict Super Bowl winner

      January 30, 2009 /

      Greg Cosell of SportingNews.com made his Super Bowl XLIII prediction on Thursday and claimed victory for Pittsburgh because the, “one-dimensional Cardinals can’t beat Steelers D.”

      He even gave a predicted final score:

      Larry FitzgeraldAfter careful deliberation and hours and hours of film study the past 10 days, I have come to this conclusion about Super Bowl 43: Steelers 27, Cardinals 20.

      After reading that, one could come to the conclusion that Cosell was being facetious. He didn’t really spend “hours and hours” of film study the past 10 days – he just said that as a light-hearted way to set up the rest of his column.

      But then he wrote this halfway through his article:

      One of the continuing problems I see on film is that offenses get overly focused on locating and accounting for Harrison. LeBeau understands this and then burdens the offensive line with a lot of movement before the snap, particularly after the pass protection gets set. That creates confusion in many instances, particularly when Harrison and Woodley line up on the same side. Often, another rusher, such as linebacker James Farrior, is not accounted for and has a free path to the quarterback.

      Okay, maybe he was being serious about watching hours and hours of film to come to his prediction. That said, does anyone find his predicted score interesting? He spent hours and hours of film study to determine that the Steelers will win by seven and that the total combined score between the two teams will be 47? Wonder where we’ve seen those numbers before? Ah, yeah –those are the exact numbers that oddsmakers gave for the point spread and over/under total for the game.

      Come on, Greg. It took you hours and hours of film preparation to come up with the exact same numbers oddsmakers set the lines at? You could do a little better than that.

      NFL, Super Bowl

      Super Bowl XLIII Notes 1/30

      January 30, 2009 /

      Ben Roethlisberger– Despite the best efforts of Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin to keep the story under raps, Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger apparently underwent an x-ray on his ribs on Wednesday. Big Ben suffered the injury in the AFC Championship Game, but there is no indication that he’ll miss the Super Bowl. (Rotoworld.com)

      – Hines Ward returned to full practice on Thursday and is on track to start Sunday against the Cardinals. (FanHouse.com)

      – Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times writes that the Steelers’ defense won’t let Kurt Warner enjoy a fairy-tale ending to his 2008 season. (Los Angeles Times)

      – Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News wrote an excellent piece featuring the top two safeties in this year’s Super Bowl: Adrian Wilson of the Cardinals and Troy Polamalu of the Steelers. (Dallas Morning News)

      – Need picks for the Super Bowl? Head to our partners at Sports Gaming Edge.com for daily picks & previews from some of the best handicappers in the business. They’ll give you top picks throughout the year.

      NFL, Super Bowl

      Tomlinson to stay with Chargers

      January 30, 2009 /

      As of right now, every indication out of San Diego is that running back LaDainian Tomlinson will not be traded this offseason and will be in a Chargers uniform in 2009.

      LaDainian TomlinsonLaDainian Tomlinson’s future with the Chargers might be the most discussed non-Super Bowl story of the week. And it took another interesting turn Thursday. In his chat on NFL.com, analyst Gil Brandt reported that Tomlinson likely will remain with San Diego in 2009.

      I was with Norv Turner and Dean Spanos last night and talked at length about LT returning. Mr. Spanos led me to believe that LT would be on their team in 2009. I think the Chargers have a good team. With Merriman back that really helps that defense a lot. And Turner has made some coaching changes. One of the keys to their team next year will be how LT Marcus McNeil plays and if he rebounds from a poor 2008.

      The Chargers keeping LT is a no-brainer. Given Tomlinson’s poor 2008 campaign, his 2009 cap charge of $6.725 million is hefty. But the point is he’s still under contract and Darren Sproles isn’t a featured back so if the team could have them both in their backfield again next season (the Chargers would have to re-sign Sproles because he’s a free agent), they’d be in pretty good shape. And maybe LT will restructure his contract and allow San Diego to keep Sproles.

      Clearly the Chargers didn’t think LT was finished heading into 2008 or else they would have made a better attempt to hang onto Michael Turner. So why dump LT now after one year? He’s a hard worker and he knows his career is now on the downside. San Diego should show him some loyalty and hopefully he repays you with a bounce back in 2009.

      NFL

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