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      Fade Material: College Football Week 4 Predictions

      September 24, 2011 /

      I finished with my first .500 week in college football last Saturday, as I went 2-2 with my predictions. Stanford and Army (who won outright over Northwestern as a 6-point dog) were winners, while Auburn and Ohio State failed to show up. I’m still 8-3-1 on the year, which I’ll certainly take.

      Florida State @ Clemson, 3:30PM ET
      The home team is 11-2 against the spread in the last 13 meetings between these two teams, while the Seminoles are just 1-5 ATS in their last six games against the Tigers and 0-7 ATS in their last seven road games versus Clemson. Florida State is also just 1-5 against the number in their last six conference games and with the line set at 2.5, I like Clemson to win by at least a field goal.
      THE PICK: CLEMSON -2.5

      Arkansas @ Alabama, 3:30PM ET
      The Razorbacks are 10-1 against the spread in their last 11 conference games and 4-1 in their last five games versus a team with a winning record. They’re also 4-1 ATS in their last five games in September and 11-5 ATS in their last 16 games as an underdog. I like Arkansas to give ‘Bama a game today and keep the score within 10 points.
      THE PICK: ARKANSAS +11

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      College Football, External Sports

      Favre’s back! (Not really.)

      September 23, 2011 /
      Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre (4) hoists receiver Greg Jennings after Favre threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to set an NFL record for career touchdown passes at 421 during the first quarter of their National Football League game at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, in this file photo taken September 30, 2007. For the first time in 19 seasons Favre failed to report for work on December 13, 2010, ending one of the most remarkable ironman streaks in all of sport. Picture taken September 30, 2007. REUTERS/Bob Cerny/Files (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

      Brett Favre is returning to football. Sort of. He has agreed to provide color commentary for the Southern Miss/Rice game on October 1st.

      “I’m excited to be back at Southern Miss with the Golden Eagles,” Favre said in a press release. “I’m not committing to a new career in broadcasting, but just wanted to support Southern Miss and check out the view from the press box. It should be fun and I hope the fans enjoy it.”

      Favre, who started at quarterback for Southern Miss from 1987-1990, set several passing records at the school despite being recruited as a defensive back out of high school.

      Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief. If anything, this would indicate that Favre isn’t planning a comeback for at least a few weeks.

      I think we can all rest easy and assume that Favre is done playing football. It would be interesting to hear him call a game, however. I wonder if they’ll get Jenn Sterger as the sideline reporter…

      External Sports, NFL

      Cashman: Yankees faked interest in Crawford to drive up price for Red Sox

      September 23, 2011 /
      New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman looks on during Yankees batting practice before their MLB American League baseball game against the Chicago White Sox in New York, April 30, 2010. REUTERS/Mike Segar (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)

      Yankees GM Brian Cashman was feeling rather frank on Friday while speaking to the media, as he discussed some of the moves and non-moves (Carl Crawford) he made last offseason.

      From ESPN:

      “I actually had dinner with the agent to pretend that we were actually involved and drive the price up,” Cashman said. “The outfield wasn’t an area of need, but everybody kept writing Crawford, Crawford, Crawford, Crawford. And I was like, ‘I feel like we’ve got Carl Crawford inBrett Gardner, except he costs more than $100 million less, with less experience.’ ”

      Surprisingly, one could argue that Gardner has had a better season than Crawford. Gardner is batting .261 and leads the league with 46 steals. Crawford never got going in Boston and is hitting .259 with only 18 steals, the fewest he’s had since his rookie season.

      Going into the season, Cashman said Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, who also landed Adrian Gonzalez, “kicked my a– in the offseason.”
      How does he feel now after winning the division?

      “What I said was accurate: The Red Sox had a great winter, and I had a bad winter,” Cashman said. “But as it turned out, I had a better winter than anybody would’ve expected, including myself.”

      It’s hardly a genius act to fane interest in a free agent that you don’t want so that you can drive up the price for your most hated division rival. But either way, it worked as the Red Sox shelled out big coin for a player in Crawford who has given them the same production as what a Triple-A hitter could have. Plus, and this is a biggie, the Yankees are heading to the postseason after winning the AL East, while the Red Sox are doing their best to give away the Wild Card.

      Of course, who knows what’s going to happen next. Things look bad for Boston now but maybe it reaches the playoffs, Crawford goes gangbusters and the BoSox will the World Series. Then all of Cashman’s talk will go for naught. The season isn’t over yet so let’s just see how everything plays out.

      External Sports, MLB

      NBA will postpone training camp, preseason games

      September 23, 2011 /

      The latest round of negotiations ended on Thursday with no deal, and it’s going to cost the league at least part of the preseason.

      The NBA is expected to announce Friday it will postpone the start of training camp and the opening slate of exhibition games after a negotiating session Thursday in New York between players union executive director Billy Hunter and commissioner David Stern ended without a labor agreement or progress toward one soon, league sources said.

      Stern, according to one source, told Hunter in Thursday’s meeting the owners want to reduce the players’ cut of basketball-related revenue to a figure well below 50 percent. Under the previous agreement, which expired July 1, the players were guaranteed a minimum of 57 percent of basketball-related revenue would be spent on salaries.

      The league offered players a 46 percent of basketball-related revenue, 11 percent less than they received in last deal and seven percent less than last proposal by players, a league source said. Owners agreed to try to come up with a mechanism to solve their issues without adding a hard salary cap before the next meeting, according to the source.

      Stern acknowledged Thursday that “the calendar is not our friend” when it comes to keeping the NBA season intact.

      Wow, 46 percent? I thought the two sides were at least in the same ballpark on the economics even if they couldn’t agree on which type of salary cap (hard or soft) to use.

      External Sports, NBA, News

      2011 NFL Week 3 Primer

      September 22, 2011 /
      Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick (7) leaves the field after running into one of his teammates in the second half during their NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta, Georgia, September 18, 2011. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)

      Giants @ Eagles, 1:00PM ET
      You have to love that after all of the media reports dedicated to how Michael Vick is this mature, changed person that when walking to the locker room following his injury against the Falcons on Sunday night, he points to the scoreboard in response to heckling fans. He’s changed all right. Now instead of using his middle finger to diss Falcon fans, he uses his index. Get well soon, Mike.

      Patriots @ Bills, 1:00PM ET
      I’m sure the sentiment for most people heading into this game is that the Bills will “come crashing down to earth” after the Patriots get done with them. But I have a different take: I think this game is going to be fun as hell. Buffalo showed in the first two weeks that it has more than enough offensive weapons to be dangerous and obviously New England can score. This could be a 52-52 game about midway through the fourth quarter.

      Texans @ Saints, 1:00PM ET
      Sean Payton hasn’t quite mastered how to best utilize Mark Ingram, Darren Sproles and Pierre Thomas in the same backfield, but once he does the Saints could revert back to their ’09 form when they blew teams out on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, Arian Foster once again looks doubtful to play and fantasy owners that drafted him with their top pick are starting to realize that yes, his hamstring is going to be a major problem early on.

      Jaguars @ Panthers, 1:00PM ET
      It’ll be the Rookie Quarterback Bowl in Carolina this Sunday when Blaine Gabbert makes his first professional start against Cam Newton, who has already thrown for over 800 yards in his first two games. Maybe if he stops throwing the ball to the other team he’ll pick up a win to go along with all of those fancy yards.

      49ers @ Bengals, 1:00PM ET
      Cincinnati receiver Jerome Simpson and offensive tackle Anthony Collins were detained by police late Wednesday when authorities investigated a package filled with 2.5 pounds of marijuana delivered to Simpson’s house while both players were present. Neither player was arrested but it’s great to see that the Bengals are already in mid-season form when it comes to obeying the law.

      Dolphins @ Browns, 1:00PM ET
      Just what every head coach on the hot seat needs: a three-game road trip following an 0-2 start. In three weeks if the Dolphins are 0-5, you can bet that Tony Sparano won’t be on the sidelines when Miami hosts its next home game (vs. Denver on October 23). And no, I mean literally bet on Sparano being canned: theSpread has his odds of being let go listed at 3/1.

      Lions @ Vikings, 1:00PM ET
      Let’s sum up Donovan McNabb’s career. Booed on draft day. Has appeared in 967 playoff games and one Super Bowl but has no ring. Had to put up with T.O. and a slew of media members and fellow athletes bashing him at every turn. Benched for Rex Grossman… possibly will be benched for Christian Ponder. I feel sorry for McNabb and I don’t mean that in a condescending way. I actually feel bad for the guy. Ah, well: Lions 56, Vikings 3.

      Broncos @ Titans, 1:00PM ET
      If there’s one game I don’t care if I see a down of this weekend, this would be it. I apologize to Denver and Tennessee fans but this matchup is the epitome of boring. But hey, go get ‘em Kyle Orton and Matt Hasselbeck. You do your thing. I’ll be over here watching Giants-Eagles, Texans-Saints or hell, even Jaguars-Panthers. Just anything but Broncos-Titans on a nice fall Sunday afternoon.

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      External Sports, NFL

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