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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Help a Fellow Human Being

Help out your fellow man in need.

RT Cunningham a regular blogger has become something much more important, a human being in need. His wife has some medical issues and he needs to get to her side.

Not everyone can give but if you can do so

Thanks to Darren Rowse of ProBlogger for turning me on to this situation

Sports Rumors

Andrew Bynum was injured in Sunday night’s game against. Memphis when he came down on teammate Lamar Odom’s foot. A Monday morning MRI revealed a sublexation (see:owie) of the knee. He is expected to miss 8 weeks. In a suddenly related story Chris Webber seems to be on his way back to the NBA. I don’t think that is a great solution, but I think it is the only solution for a team that all of a sudden has only one center on the roster at all and that center is Kwame Brown. Looking past the current emergency the Lakers find themselves in, I think the bigger value may come in the form of C-Web’s veteran leadership, if the team can hold together while Bynum is out and make a run at the playoffs.

The NFL hands out the Philadelphia class fan award. I know the Eagles fans thought that booing Santa Claus would give them a lifetime lock on this award but no the Colts fans shockingly upset them by booing a 14-year old girl, at the start of the fourth quarter, when she was announced as one of the winners of the Punt, Pass, Kick competition.

Denver Broncos Offseason

Denver Broncos – The NFL is a fickle place. With their off the field drug conflicts with the league. The deaths of Darrent Williams and Damien Nash in separate off the field incidents were devastating. Then add in the complete disappointment of having an under achieving running game, when everyone has always believed you could stick anyone in that backfield and they would rush for a thousand yards. The fact it was disappointing becomes even more pronounced when you take into account the fact they brought on Travis Henry with all his baggage to improve that run game.
The Broncos also had the third most porous run defense in the league. If you can’t stop the run and can’t run the ball you don’t have a prayer. The Broncos have one of the most promising young quarterbacks in the league. You just can’t ask him to carry a team, for a whole season, this early in his career.
The Broncos seem to be the only team to make a rare big trade in the NFL. Now they have Dre Bly and Champ Bailey. Likely the best corner tandem in the league. They are very average everywhere else though. While in the past Shanahan, one of the few Coach/GM combos in the league, has traded away pick to move up for talent. They need to keep their draft picks this year and look to up grade reasonably across the board instead of going for the big splash.
They also have great young talent at wide receiver with Brandon Marshall and Brandon Stokley. You can expect that Javon Walker will be gone after his little tantrum recently. When he stated that the Broncos and himself should part ways. I don’t think they will look at this as a first round need. They will likely address this through a reasonable free agency pool. If not then they will look to later rounds for help; they aren’t in the market for a #1 receiver.
I really think they need to look for a strong middle line backer, in order to get DJ Williams back into his natural outside linebacker. With Williams talent really showing a lot more at the strong-side spot, you would almost be getting a player and a half, by filling the middle spot, and freeing Williams.
The best available linebacker at the Broncos spot will likely be Kieth Rivers (LB-USC). Rivers actually played outside linebacker through college, and would be a smaller linebacker in the middle, but Denver traditionally goes for a smaller quicker defense, so he would be a nice fit. If James Laurenitis were to slide to the Broncos, which I doubt. He is a natural inside linebacker and an even better fit than Rivers.
This is less off-season and more next season. Should the Broncos make no strides forward in their production with the talent that they have, you have to start wondering about the stability of Mike Shanahan’s job. If he were in almost any other city we would have been having this talk a lot sooner. Denver is a somewhat different situation, one because of the storied success, the Elway years, and Pat Bowlen always steadfastly backing Shanahan.

Outside Shot
From the EWWWWWWWWWWW department. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080111/wl_uk_afp/britainchildrenadoptionmarriage

Carolina Panthers Offseason

Carolina Panthers – Panthers coach John Fox has been given the dreaded vote of confidence. I do actually believe he should keep his job. They have been plagued by injury and in turn the ineptitude of some of the players he was saddled with because of those injuries. However I think General Manager Marty Hurney’s seat is getting hot right about now. While some of his problems as well can be linked to injuries, he is the one bringing in the talent. First off that David Carr pickup was a huge whiff. Then when Delhomme gets injured and he resigns himself to Carr’s ineptitude you go out and get Vinny Testaverde. Seriously that is all he could come up with. I mean the reason a GM is valuable is because he can evaluate the talent and make a move the average guy doesn’t jump to. I would say that is the description of the Vinny grab. Simply for the fact he is bringing nothing “outside the box” you have to question his value.
Every cloud has a silver lining, or a silver and teal lining in this case. The cloud; the Panthers wide receiving core all either under performed (Steve Smith) or performed as poorly as expected (everyone else).
After the year Steve Smith had in 2006 it is not hard to understand defensive secondary shifting their focus to him. If you consider the fact that the players they were pulling the focus from were Kearny Colbert and Drew Carter, this seems like a good defensive strategy. Add to that the wheel o’ quarterback game show that Carolina hosted under center all season, and that 7-9 record becomes understandable if not acceptable.
With Colbert and Carter likely headed elsewhere through free agency. It would be a reasonable expectation for Fox and who ever is the GM by the time Draft day comes around to look to the Wide Receiver ranks. If they opt for this safe route it would likely be Malcolm Kelly (WR – Oklahoma).
The Second safe route is to look for a ball hawking safety to compliment Chris Harris who they stole from Chicago prior to this year. The clear number one at safety this year will be Kenny Phillips (S-Miami). He also should still be on the board when Carolina gets up to pick.
The Panthers also need a solid Defensive End to take some of the pressure and attention off of Julius Peppers. While Mike Rucker will likely retire the Panthers will be left with a lot of potential as far as pass rushers go. But that potential is as of yet unproven. Since I can’t really describe it as a need I would be surprised to Carolina to go this route because they would probably be drafting about 7 picks earlier than necessary, and that would be a hard leap to make for a team with so many areas of need.
The final option, which is neither safe nor likely, is that the Panthers go QB. With them getting in before the Bears it is likely that Andre Woodson will still be available to them. He definitely isn’t starter ready for the NFL but the Panthers aren’t done with Delhomme yet and they may give Carr another chance. The biggest obstacle to this pick actually going down will come in the form of how much say John Fox has in this pick. If his vote counts you can bet the coach who will clearly be working for his job next season, has no interest in 2-4 year project at quarterback with the number one pick.

Outside Shot
Terrell Owens says we shouldn't blame Romo's trip to mexico for the teams loss, well I don't but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun with it

Terell Owens New Coors lite spot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRcy7kWfrC4
Don't blame Jessica Blame the Post
http://www.yardbarker.com/author/article_external/72065