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      Turner due for a bounce back year in 2010?

      May 12, 2010 /

      Michael Turner didn’t want to hear about the “Curse of 370” heading into last season, but after ankle injuries limited him to only 871 yards on 178 carries, it appears as though “the Burner” is well aware of the damages a full workload can have on a running back.

      And so are the Falcons.

      Turner recently admitted that he fell out of shape last offseason, which may have contributed to his slow start. Turner didn’t really resemble the ’08 version of himself until a Week 8 Monday night effort against the Saints in which he rushed for 151 yards on 20 carries with one touchdown. Until that point, Turner didn’t appear to be hitting holes with much authority and even looked slow at times.

      But Turner apparently learned a lesson from last offseason, because he reported to a recent Falcons mini-camp in great shape according to several reports. Head coach Mike Smith was even quoted as saying his running back was in “outstanding shape” and was moving “extremely well” in his first day back. That’s great news for Turner, the Falcons and a handful of fantasy owners that were burned (no pun intended) by the running back’s production (or lack thereof) last season.

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      External Sports, NFL

      Did Saints’ GM try to cover up Vicodin theft?

      May 12, 2010 /

      According to former Saints security director Geoffrey Santini, general manager Mickey Loomis tried to convince him to cover up the theft of Vicodin from team’s headquarters.

      From ESPN.com:

      “I was witnessing crimes, and I wasn’t going to stand for that,” Santini told the newspaper. “I did everything I could to save the people that were involved, but it just didn’t go that way. Mickey didn’t let it.”

      The lawsuit, filed April 30, alleges one “senior staff member” was caught on video stealing the prescription pain killer Vicodin, while another was allowed to take a seemingly excessive amount of Vicodin from team supplies.

      Santini told USA Today the “senior staff member” caught on video stealing Vicodin was Saints assistant head coach Joe Vitt and the other staff member mentioned in the lawsuit is Saints head coach Sean Payton.

      The Saints say that Santini is just a disgruntled former employee looking for payback. But Santini maintains that he resigned because he was being ordered to either undertake or ignore that several members of the Saints’ coaching staff was stealing the drug.

      It sounds as if this is your typical “he said, she said” case. Santini has credibility because he worked for the FBI for 31 years, but you never know what someone’s motives are. He could be fabricating the truth because he’s pissed off at the Saints, or he could be the key to uncovering a serious infraction. Who knows at this point?

      What we do know, however, is that these are serious allegations. Stealing Vicodin is a felony offense that can carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. And considering Sean Payton’s name is tied to this situation, the Saints have cause for concern.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, NFL

      How much of the “LeBacle” is due to the elbow?

      May 12, 2010 /

      John Hollinger re-watched Game 5 and wrote a good piece about what may be going on with LeBron James. (Insider subscription required.)

      James couldn’t make a jump shot. He tried 11 jumpers and made only one of them. Every miss was short — most of them well short — and a couple drifted off to the right. I suppose this could have happened just by chance, but a far more likely cause is that his elbow was bothering his shot.

      I counted several others in which James had a clear opening for the jumper and turned it down. One could argue this was a reaction to his cold shooting, but that has never stopped him before. Instead, I would surmise that he knew his elbow limited his effectiveness as a jump shooter.

      We have one other data point to support us: his track record in this series. Since Game 5 of the Chicago series, James’ effectiveness has correlated directly with how much rest he had between games.

      Witness: Games 2, 4 and 5 came with just one day of rest; in those three, he shot 0-for-13 on 3s and 17-for-47 overall. Games 1 and 3, on the other hand, had an extra day of rest beforehand, which seemed to allow his elbow to feel much better: In those two contests, he was a one-man wrecking crew, making 26 of 46 shots from the floor and scoring 73 points. Needless to say, those were the two Cleveland wins in this series.

      What it all means for the Cavs is rather worrisome because Thursday’s must-win Game 6 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) comes on one day’s rest again.

      If rest is the key for LeBron, he’s going to have a tough time performing well in Game 6, and that gives the Celtics the advantage. It’s funny — heading into these playoffs everyone thought that a grizzled Boston team would play better with more rest, but with LeBron’s injury, the opposite seems to be true, at least in this series.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA

      Cushing should just give his ROY award back

      May 12, 2010 /

      I’ve got an idea: Instead of allowing the AP to decide whether or not it’s fair for him to keep the honor, maybe Texans’ linebacker Brian Cushing should just return the 2009 Rookie of the Year Award in light of his four-game suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Talk about a bold, respectable move.

      I know, I know – if he did that then he’d be admitting guilt. But here’s the thing, he’s already been proven guilty. He’s already been caught and instead of throwing himself at the mercy of the media and fans when he was, he went with the tried and true method of skirting the issue by saying he wasn’t suspended for steroids.

      Right, Brian – we know you weren’t suspended for steroids. You were suspended for hCG, which is used to insure that your balls go back to the same size after you use steroids. Big difference.

      Cushing, and every other athlete who has ever been caught or will be caught using PEDs, should follow in the footsteps of Yankees starter Andy Pettitte. When he was caught, he fessed up – immediately. He didn’t run from the problem and he didn’t try to make excuses. He was open about why he took them (he wanted to heal faster) and was sincere in his apology. He knew he messed up and the only thing that was left to do was pray that fans would forgive him.

      What many athletes don’t realize is that fans want to be forgiving. They want to accept that athletes are human and make mistakes just like everybody else. What fans don’t appreciate is being lied to and made to look like naïve fools. When someone like Cushing says that he wasn’t suspended for steroids and then less than 24 hours later reports surface that the positive drug test was for hCG, fans feel lied to.

      So what’s Cushing to do? Bite down, swallow hard and fess up. Then he needs to voluntarily give his ROY award back and admit that he didn’t earn it. Because whether or not the AP re-votes him the winner of the trophy or forces him to give it up, he’s not going to feel good about the situation. That award will always been tied to his four-game suspension so he might as well do the honorable thing and just give it back.

      And if he does, watch how fast fans are willing to forgive.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, NFL

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