Posts Tagged ‘NFL’
April 14th, 2010
A source sent this video of a seemingly inebriated Jerry Jones waxing off about Tim Tebow (”he’d never get on the field”), Bill Parcells (”not worth a shit”), and how he got his stadium.
Read the rough transcript here:
Jerry Jones: Romo was a miracle.
Other guy: It was a miracle, wasn’t it?
JJ: He almost never got in, and he almost was gone. Tebow would never…
Different other guy: What if you were the Jaguars or — would you just, just draft him and sell fucking jerseys?
JJ: That’s the only reason I brought in Bill Parcells.
[Laughter]
JJ: [Inaudible. Sounds a little like, "Sell mammoth fuckin' rake," whatever that means.]
JJ: Bill’s not worth a shit. I love him.
Different other guy: I know you do.
JJ: Not worth a shit, but I wanted — they were on my ass so bad. J’s gotta have a yes man. So to get this fuckin’ stadium, I need to bring his ass in.
Different other guy: What, you, you wouldn’t take Tebow in the third round?
JJ: Why? He’d never get on the field. I can’t get him out there.
[Laughter]
JJ: I can’t get him out there.
SOURCE: Deadspin
October 23rd, 2009
You go to sleep one day and wake up to find that Tony Dungy has morphed from a Super Bowl winning coach to the voice and conscience of the NFL.
It was Dungy who helped pave the way for the return of Michael Vick in Philadelphia. And it seems when there is an issue in the league that everyone turns to him.
For a soft-spoken guy, the respect that everyone has for the former Colts’ coach gives him a booming voice whether he is talking about controversial subjects like player felonies or helping out Jeff Fisher in the “Peyton Manning Jerseygate.”
Yesterday he was on the Dan Patrick radio show advocating that the Tennessee Titans say yes on a new QB.
“I would really try Vince Young right now,” said Dungy who thinks that might spark the winless team.
Dungy certainly knows good quarterbacking having had future Hall of Famer Manning in his team meetings.
So that brings us to the question of whether it is time to see more of Vince Young and Michael Vick.
Eagles fans envisioned some cool things happening with Vick’s talent and Young was once the bright future in Tennessee.
Young has thrown five passes with no completions this season. He has rushed for five yards. Vick is 1-for-5 passing with 13 rushing yards.
If Philadelphia’s Andy Reid had any thoughts of utilizing more of Vick this might be the time. The next three games are with Washington, New York and Dallas. If you can’t have trickeration with conference foes when can you?
Jeff Fisher’s decision in Tennessee is much easier. The Titans are running on two flat tires and a decision has to be made about Young’s future. You can’t do worse than no wins. You have a bye week to ease Young back and then a home game against Jacksonville.
October 22nd, 2009
CIN OVER CHI
GB OVER CLEVLAND
SD OVER KC
IND OVER ST. LOUIS
SF OVER HOUSTON
PITT OVER MINN
NE OVER TB
CAROLINA OVER BUFFALO
OAK OVER NY JETS
NEW ORLEANS OVER MIAMI
DALLAS OVER ATL
NY GIANTS OVER ARIZONA
PHI OVER WASH
October 16th, 2009
ST. LOUIS — Conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh lashed out at NFL union leader DeMaurice Smith, activists Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and the media a day after being dropped from a group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams.
On his syndicated show Thursday, Limbaugh said he was approached by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts earlier this year about participating in a Rams bid. Checketts assured him his involvement as a minority investor had been vetted by the NFL, he said.
“I said to him at this meeting, ‘Are you aware of the firestorm?’ He said ‘We wouldn’t have approached you if we hadn’t taken care of that,’ ” said Limbaugh, a conservative favorite who is reviled by many liberals.
Limbaugh added that Checketts had told him his involvement had been cleared at the “highest levels of the NFL.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Colts owner Jim Irsay each expressed misgivings this week at a league-wide meeting about Limbaugh’s involvement, with Goodell saying Limbaugh had made “polarizing” comments and Irsay vowing to vote against him.
On Wednesday, Checketts said Limbaugh had been dropped from the bid.
“This reflects where we’re moving in an ethical nature,” said Dan Lebowitz, executive director of the Center for Sports and Society at Northeastern University.
“The league has 78 percent African-American players,” Lebowitz said. “Do you bring in someone who has made racist statements to own a team that’s largely made up of players the owner has made slurring statements about?”
With Limbaugh out, the Checketts group is sifting through new investors. A person familiar with the process said global financier and philanthropist George Soros is not under consideration to be a part of the Checketts group. Former Rams running back Marshall Faulk could be part of it, a source said.
Checketts is a ways away from reconfiguring the investment group, as the Rams are a ways from being sold at this point.
During a 15-minute counterattack at the start of his show, Limbaugh said he believes he’s been made an example by a players’ union seeking leverage in talks over a new collective bargaining agreement. What happened to him was an illustration of “Obama’s America on full display,” the commentator said.
Limbaugh’s history hurt his participation in the bid. In 2003, he was forced to resign from ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” after saying of the Eagles’ Donovan McNabb: “I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.”
According to transcripts posted on his Web site, in 2007 Limbaugh said: “The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
Limbaugh blamed Smith, executive director of the NFLPA and an “Obama-ite,” along with Sharpton and Jackson, whom he referred to as “race hustlers,” for Checketts’ decision to drop him. He said his sacking was an example of the political clout wielded by President Barack Obama’s administration.
“What is happening to the National Football League, what is about to happen to it, has already happened to Wall Street, has already happened to the automobile business,” Limbaugh said.
Limbaugh said he was victimized in the media by “misreporting, lying, repeating the lies while also saying ‘Limbaugh denies,’ repeating the made-up quotes, the blind hatred.”
“Believe me, the hatred that exists in this is found in the sportswriter community, it’s found in the news business, it’s found in the race hustler business,” Limbaugh said.
Limbaugh said Checketts telephoned on Tuesday, asking him to withdraw from the group. Limbaugh responded that he wouldn’t withdraw and that Checketts would have to “go public and fire me,” and thought the news would be made public Thursday morning.
Smith, the NFLPA head, last week voiced his objections to Limbaugh’s bid with Goodell, and urged players to speak out. Sharpton and Jackson also attacked Limbaugh’s involvement, asserting that Limbaugh’s track record on race should exclude him.
Limbaugh said the real reason he’s out is the NFLPA’s attempt to influence negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. “It’s designed to intimidate the owners, frighten the owners, and say, ‘We’re running this league now, gang, not you,’ ” Limbaugh said.
Limbaugh said he’s “lost nothing” because of the episode and vowed to continue being the “biggest non-paid promoter of the sport.”
The Checketts group is among a reported half-dozen bidders for the Rams, and would keep the team in St. Louis. The children of the late Georgia Frontiere, who inherited the team upon her death in January 2008, announced in June that they had hired the investment firm Goldman Sachs to review assets of the estate, including the football team.
All franchise sales must be approved by 24 of the NFL’s 32 teams — an ownership group that is overwhelmingly white, conservative and focused on the bottom line, which could have suffered if fans or advertisers were angered by Limbaugh.
“There’s an argument that says the very principles Rush espouses — the free market — are what did him in,” said the conservative radio host Michael Smerconish. “This IS the free market. These are private businessmen who made a decision about what was in the best business interest of their thriving venture.
“It’s definitely ironic. There’s a bit of hypocrisy here as well,” Smerconish said, citing a study that showed 70 percent of NFL owners’ political contributions went to Republicans. “Through their dollars they are very supportive of the sort of politics that Rush talks.”
Said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was a loud voice of opposition to Limbaugh’s bid: “It’s remarkable in that he was denied by other powerful whites. At the end of the day, his own peers said, ‘You are a liability.’ Even the rich and powerful do not want to be identified with racism.”
October 16th, 2009
CIN OVER HOUSTON
GREEN BAY OVER DETROIT
BALT OVER MINN
NY GIANTS OVER NEW ORLEANS
PITT OVER CLEV
CAROLINA OVER TAMPA
WASH OVER KC
ST.LOUIS OVER JAX
SEATTLE OVER ARIZONA
PHI OVER OAK
NE OVER TENN
NY JETS OVER BUFF
ATL OVER CHI
DEN OVER SAN DIEGO
October 13th, 2009
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida quarterback Tim Tebow said former NFL star Steve Young was one of the people who gave him advice about playing after suffering a concussion.
“He had a lot of different things, but he was also encouraging me not to push it,” Tebow said Monday. “It was just different things that helped him as far as sleeping, as far as just resting your mind and not pushing it.”
Young retired from the NFL after the 1999 season. He suffered at least seven concussions, four in his final three seasons. Tebow said Young told him not to test himself by doing things such as running a sprint on his own just to see how he felt.
“When they do a test, then you’re OK. Don’t be testing yourself,” Tebow said he was told during of one of the conversations.
He called that some of the best advice he received, noting that he would have probably been doing that.
“It took a little while after the hit to start remembering and start to clearing up,” Tebow said of his memory of the Kentucky game Sept. 26, when he was hurt.
His reaction to critics who said he should not have played Saturday at LSU: “That’s what people do, they make opinions and I don’t get upset about anything. … A lot of people think they are doctors.”
Tebow isn’t having any more computerized tests for the concussion, but doctors “are still checking on me, doing little balance tests and eyes tests and stuff.”
Tebow said he didn’t know if the tests will continue for the rest of the season.
October 8th, 2009
