Category: NFL (Page 830 of 1282)

      Strahan wanted to return to Giants

      January 9, 2009 /

      Michael Strahan told Newsday.com’s Bob Glauber that if the Giants had called three weeks ago requesting for his services, he would have gladly returned to his former team for the playoffs.

      Michael Strahan“I was like, ‘Man, if they called me, I’d go back there now,’ ” Strahan told me yesterday at Giants Stadium, where he recorded an interview with Giants running backs Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw for Sunday’s Fox pregame show. “When they played Carolina? Definitely. You ‘jones’ for this thing, especially in the playoffs.”

      The Giants never did call Strahan, nor will they; the last time they reached out to him was during the summer, when Osi Umenyiora suffered a season-ending knee injury. But after a 15-year career that someday will put him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Strahan told them he wanted to remain retired.

      So Strahan wasn’t ready to help the Giants in preseason when Umenyiora went down, but now that all of the training camp practices and grueling regular season are behind him, he was ready to jump at the chance to join them for the playoffs? Does that rub anyone else the wrong way or is it just me?

      I know Strahan means a lot to the Giants organization and was with the franchise through thick and thin, but I don’t blame the team for not picking up the phone and reaching out to him so he could have another shot at a ring without having to play an entire season.

      NFL

      Florida finishes No. 1 in polls, Utah No. 2

      January 9, 2009 /

      The final votes are in and to the shock and dismay of approximately zero people, the Florida Gators are college football’s No. 1 team. The undefeated Utah Utes are No. 2.

      Urban MeyerThe Gators received 48 first-place votes and 1,606 points in the poll released early Friday, after they beat Oklahoma 24-14 in the BCS national title game.

      Utah, the only team in major college football to go undefeated this season, got 16 first-place votes and 1,519 points.

      “I thought we had an outside chance,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said in a telephone interview with the AP. “There was enough national sentiment, I thought we might get the No. 1 slot. It wasn’t to be.”

      Florida won its third AP national championship and second in the last three seasons. Steve Spurrier and Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel led the Gators to the 1996 title.

      No. 3 USC received one first-place vote. Texas was No. 4, and will have to settle with finishing ahead of fifth-ranked Oklahoma.

      The Utes from the Mountain West Conference swept through their regular season, while Florida and Alabama from the SEC, Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 and Southern California from the Pac-10, jockeyed for position in the national title chase.

      The Mountain West does not have an automatic bid to the BCS — it’s not considered a strong enough league to deserve one — but the Utes earned their way in.

      Utah was seventh in the final regular-season poll, but that perfect record looked much more impressive after the Utes beat Alabama 31-17 in the Sugar Bowl last week.

      The Pac-10 should do the right thing and bring Utah and BYU (or TCU?) into its conference. Then they could have a conference championship game and Utah and BYU (or TCU?) could show how good they really are.

      Imagine if the NFL had the same system college football has. We wouldn’t have had the opportunity to witness one of the greatest Super Bowls of all time when the Giants beat the Patriots last year, because the Giants would have been ranked No. 6 in the polls.

      College Football, NFL

      Bill Romanowski makes pitch to become next Broncos head coach

      January 9, 2009 /

      Former NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski is openly campaigning to become the next head coach of the Denver Broncos.

      He said he sent Broncos owner Pat Bowlen a lengthy PowerPoint presentation touting his credentials and outlining the fresh ideas he would bring to the job that Mike Shanahan held for 14 seasons before his stunning dismissal last week.

      “I can’t stop thinking about this,” said Romanowski, who played for San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver and Oakland during a standout 16-year career in the NFL that was marred by a bad temper and his admitted use of THG, the designer steroid at the center of the BALCO scandal.

      “This may be a complete fantasy and that’s all right … At the end of the day, nothing may happen from it.”

      Romanowski has no official NFL coaching experience, just a knowledge from the players’ perspective.
      “For Pat to do something like this, it would take him being a visionary, thinking outside the box,” said Romanowski, whose coaching experience includes helping with his son’s football team. “Him hiring me, it’s a long shot. I understand that. I know that.”

      This makes zero sense. Never mind the fact that the guy openly talked about getting away with taking banned substances (he damn near bragged about it at the end of his career), but he also has zero experience as a coach – none, not even as a linebacker coach at some Podunk college.

      If he’s serious about coaching, then maybe the Broncos should give him a small role at first and go from there.

      NFL

      Did Jason Whitlock just compare Matt Millen to O.J. Simpson?

      January 8, 2009 /

      Newspaper columnist Jason Whitlock is a bit miffed about NBC’s recent hire of former Detroit Lions general manager Matt Millen as their lead studio analyst for the NFL playoffs. And he wondered if O.J. Simpson was available from his Las Vegas jail cell.

      Seriously, O.J. on “Football Night in America” is the only thing that could top Millen’s inclusion. And NBC is promising to foist Millen on its Super Bowl audience. If this happens, I will confront Millen and NBC executives at the Super Bowl and go Rob Parker-Rod Marinelli on the responsible parties.

      Look, the Lions haven’t won a NFL championship in over 50 years, and Millen was in charge for only eight seasons. Though under his leadership, the Lions did own the NFL’s worst winning percentage (31-81, .277) and became the first team in league history not to win a road game in three consecutive seasons (2001-2003). And, of course, there was the whole 0-16 thing. At the core of this failure are some pretty bad drafts that included guys like quarterback Joey Harrington, and wide receivers Charles Rogers and Mike Williams.

      Lion fans surely grew tired of Millen’s time as the team’s CEO, but I can’t imagine them longing for the Eric Hipple years.

      NFL, Television

      As usual, Favre to take his sweet ass time with retirement decision

      January 8, 2009 /

      Here’s a shock – Brett Favre will take his time deciding whether or not he should retire or come back for another season.

      Brett FavreBrett Favre has eased comfortably into his offseason routine in Mississippi and will make no decision about whether to play another NFL season for several weeks.

      “I have the ability to turn it off just like that,” he said. “I don’t feel I have anything else to prove. Do I have to redeem myself for the last five games? No. I could be trying to do that until I’m 60 years old. There is nothing left out there for me from that standpoint. I’m disappointed with the last five games, sure, but I know I did everything I could have.”

      Favre said that if he does decide to announce his retirement from the NFL for a second straight offseason that he will do so differently. He plans to make a quiet decision without a public news conference, such as the one he held upon finishing his 16 years with the Green Bay Packers, in which he became choked with emotion.

      “I’m an emotional guy, and I’m sure people are tired of seeing me get emotional,” he said. “People would probably say, ‘Oh, here he goes again.’ I think it would just better for me to just thank the Jets, and I sincerely mean that. It was well worth what I invested. But I’m going to just quietly step away if that’s what happens.”

      He’ll make a quiet announcement this time – no press conference.

      He’ll probably announce it the week of the Super Bowl, but again, no press conference.

      NFL

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