Month: February 2017

the Pittsburgh Steelers running back who was arrested in late August.

In addition to feeding the electric Andre Ellington the majority of their carries (something they did not do last season to the chagrin of pretty much everyone), they’re spreading out targets to Michael Floyd (11 catches for 252 yards), Larry Fitzgerald (10 catches for 107 yards), and explosive rookie John Brown (nine catches for 109 yards and three touchdowns).

Even with a backup quarterback in Drew Stanton filling in for Carson Palmer, they don’t seem to have altered (greatly) their willingness to chuck the ball deep.

Against San F1rancisco in particular, this was apparent.

Below: protection does its job, including a nice blitz pickup by running back Stepfan Taylor (No. 30), and Stanton goes confidently in the direction of his dreams.

The most notable name on that list is Bell, the Pittsburgh Steelers running back who was arrested in late August. Bell was also charged with marijuana possession during that arrest, which could still result in a one-game suspension regardless of the DUI case.

Josh Gordon pled guilty to DUI charges last week in an attempt to avoid additional punishment, though Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports Gordon could still be suspended for that arrest based on his history of substance-abuse violations.

“Jay has a good feel for who can make plays for him,” Shanahan said. “He has a good feel for the talent around him and even the talent around the league. He is going to get the ball to the places it should go with both of those things in mind. He has vision and anticipation. A lot of guys with strong arms don’t have those two things. They just wait for people to get open and try to win with their strong arm. Jay’s vision and anticipation set him apart.”

Cutler did not let his Type 1 diabetes, discovered in 2008, deter him. His quest for a Super Bowl for the Bears — he is signed through 2020 — is passionate. His get-away-from-me attitude with the public is real. His lean-on-me attitude with his teammates is real.

Vikings GM: Everybody hopes Bridgewater plays again

The Minnesota Vikings still don’t have a timeline for Teddy Bridgewater’s potential return.

On Thursday, general manager Rick Spielman declined to say with 100 percent certainty the quarterback will ever play again.

“Everybody’s hoping,” Spielman said, per USA Today’s Tom Pelissero.
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The GM added that Bridgewater is still not doing any football activities. The 24-year-old suffered a gruesome knee injury in which he dislocated his knee and tore his ACL in practice in September.

Kirk Cousins to the 49ers: A surefire candidate to be franchise-tagged for the second straight year — at the price of $23.94 million — Cousins is already the subject of next-offseason whispers, with the 49ers and even the Rams being bandied about as landing spots for 2018.

Limited Kids Rougned Odor Jersey If the Redskins were head-over-heels for Cousins, they wouldn’t be in this position. Neither would Cousins, who reportedly “doesn’t want to be” with the team anymore after endless haggling over his contract. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah believes there’s a “greater than 50 percent chance” that the 28-year-old quarterback won’t be on Washington’s roster next season, saying he “would not be shocked at all if we saw a Kirk Cousins-to-San Francisco trade go down.”

Jimmy Garoppolo to the Browns: New Orleans and Chicago have been named as candidates for Garoppolo at least partly because Saints coach Sean Payton and Bears general manager Ryan Pace, like Jimmy G, went to Eastern Illinois. It’s fair to connect those dots, but Bill Belichick doesn’t give a hoot about reuniting a pack of Billy the Panther supporters. The Patriots want value for Tom Brady’s backup, with CSN New England’s Tom Curran noting that the team must have its “doors blown off” before dealing Garoppolo.

Will 2017 be a year of redemption for Shelby Miller?

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The sports world has been abuzz this week following a trade in the NBA that might end up being one of the most ill-advised trades in recent sports history. The trade of DeMarcus Cousins from Sacramento to New Orleans could be seen as a head-scratcher at best, self-sabotage at worst, and brazen highway robbery for the Pelicans. It’s actually reminiscent of the infamous trade that saw the Braves somehow receive a package of Dansby Swanson, Ender Inciarte, and Aaron Blair from the Diamondbacks for Shelby Miller.

This was a bad deal for Arizona in every sense of the word, as it carried consequences both immediate and long-term. Swanson ended up making his major league debut in that season and is now a prime candidate for Rookie of the Year, and Inciarte won a Gold Glove (and passed the stats test with excellent defense) while also showing signs of improving with the bat. Meanwhile, Miller ended up toiling in the desert and was even demoted to Triple-A at one point — a trip that coincided with the Braves visiting Arizona with both Swanson and Inciarte in tow. Go figure.

“I used to love the pastrami,” he says. “They had those big walk-in refrigerators. I was standing in there one day, with the door shut, just throwing pastrami in my mouth.

“I was like something out of a movie. I’ve got this bin of meat, throwing meat in my mouth, the door swings open and it’s the owner.
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“He goes, ‘Get out. Don’t come back.'”

Look, if I worked at Subway I can confidently tell you that I would definitely try to get some free cold cuts in, so I can’t really fault Herman here.

Shortly after Herman was hired at Texas, he showed us exactly how hard work can definitely pay off. After his rookie position coaching gig at Texas Lutheran, Herman spent two seasons as a graduate assistant in Austin in 1999 and 2000. He showed off that he still had the business card from those days.

NBA Dunk Contest 2017 results: Glenn Robinson III crowned after Aaron Gordon falls out in the 1st round

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The Indiana Pacers¡¯ Glenn Robinson III won the NBA Dunk Contest on Saturday in New Orleans, sealing the dunk contest with a reverse slam over several people. Robinson started with the first 50 of the night and finished strong against Derrick Jones Jr., who had advanced into the final round with him.
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After having one of the best Slam Dunk Contest performances ever last year, despite losing the title to Zach LaVine, Aaron Gordon surprisingly lost in the first round. He needed several attempts to throw down his drone dunk and couldn¡¯t land a through-the-legs attempt on his second dunk. Gordon, who has been injured this year, just looked like he didn¡¯t have the same hops as last year.

Like Gordon¡¯s performance, the entire dunk contest didn¡¯t live up to last year¡¯s magical one. Most of the dunks felt like variations of each other, with players jumping over people to dunk. In fact, Robinson¡¯s winning dunk was the same one John Wall did in 2014 ¡ª although to be fair, Robinson did it by jumping over two more people. Here¡¯s Robinson¡¯s dunk.

Before tabbing Perry for its the halftime show, the NFL made waves when reports surfaced stating that potential performers would be asked to contribute income from post-Super Bowl tours or other financial compensation in order to play.

This is not Perry’s first foray into the sporting world. During the college football season, she appeared on ESPN’s College Gameday to pick Ole Miss to upset Alabama and endure Lee Corso’s giant elephant head. In terms of musical performances in front of a large national audience, she has previously played at the Grammys.

Will the Browns pay Terrelle Pryor No. 1 receiver money?

It’s a long-running joke that baseball players report to spring training every year and boast of being “in the best shape of my life.” In Sandoval’s case, it might be true, although that isn’t saying much for someone whose belly grew so big that he snapped his belt buckle while taking a swing April 9 in Toronto.

For the record, Sandoval reported to Red Sox camp Thursday weighing “in the high 240s,” according to Joe Ferrer, a certified strength and conditioning specialist at Bommarito Performance Systems in Miami, where Sandoval worked out five days a week for most of the winter. Josmir Romero, Sandoval’s personal assistant, estimated the 30-year-old has dropped approximately 40 pounds since May, when he had surgery for a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

“He’s like a new Panda,” Romero said.

“I can not only sense that, I know it to be true,” said Echevarria, a former U.S. Army veteran who owns Coach Ray’s Boxing & Fitness. “From the previous seasons when Pablo came into spring training extremely overweight, he’s really dedicated this time to his nutrition and his training to get where he’s at right now. And he’s in awesome shape, man.”

Will the Browns pay Terrelle Pryor No. 1 receiver money? It’s easy to forget that Pryor was a quarterback once upon a time, but he turned into a bona fide No. 1 receiver last year, putting up 1,007 receiving yards with five different mediocre, or worse, quarterbacks throwing him the ball. But it’s only one year of productivity. Is it worth a $15 million bet that he can do that consistently? I’d say it is, but we’ll see if the Browns agree.

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Lynn said his mother always wanted to coach and poured that energy into him.

The Broncos have certainly made use of the franchise player tag with wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and linebacker Von Miller having been tagged in recent years before signing major contract extensions with the team. Miller had the tag placed on him last offseason before the two sides finished a megadeal in July. This time around, however, the Broncos don’t have any candidates as their list of unrestricted free agents is not a long one.

Linebacker DeMarcus Ware is on the list, but he’s also coming off back surgery, while defensive end Vance Walker is also on the list, and he’s coming off knee surgery. Nose tackle Sylvester Williams is also scheduled to be a free agent, but the Broncos declined to pick up his fifth-year option last year because they thought the price was too high.

Authentic Omar Infante Jersey Growing up in the small town of Celina in North Texas, Lynn took a job in construction at age 13, working 40-60 hours a week in the summer. He worked his way up to a foreman by the time he was in high school, driving his crew to job sites for a construction company that built shopping malls and custom homes.

Lynn said he had an eye for interior design.

“Here’s this 17-year-old kid taking couples to the design center and picking stuff out for their homes, and I had a knack for it,” said Lynn, who plans to build his dream home back in Dallas when his coaching career is over. “I actually went to school initially for interior fashion design.

“I loved driving by properties and seeing how things were built from the dirt up and creating things. That was just a fascinating thing to me.”
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Lynn said his mother always wanted to coach and poured that energy into him.

“She was very humble, but she was very demanding,” Lynn said. “And I think that’s where I got it from. I’m very demanding. I can show a little more grace. My mom noticed that in me. And she told me one time. She came out and watched practice, and she said, ‘You know, you need to show a little more grace — be a little more understanding.’”

ESPN Insider Adam Schefter reported that Tony Romo wants to play in 2017

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Though it may be unrealistic for the Texans to find a team willing to trade for Osweiler and take on his contract, he’s the Texan most likely to move on this offseason. Osweiler struggled in his first season in Houston, throwing more interceptions (16) than touchdowns (15) during the regular season, and he was benched in Week 15 for Tom Savage. Osweiler had huge expectations to live up to in Houston after signing a four-year, $72 million contract during the offseason, but so far he has not been able to do so. If guaranteed money wasn’t a factor, Osweiler would likely not be on the team next season.

Youth D’Joun Smith Jersey Before Super Bowl LI, ESPN Insider Adam Schefter reported that Tony Romo wants to play in 2017, pushing off retirement and potential lucrative offers from television networks.

While we can mention a host of potential suitors for Romo, let’s first eliminate the Dallas Cowboys. It’s not happening. The Cowboys made it clear they were rolling with Dak Prescott and the rookie responded with a 13-3 record, 23 touchdown passes and the Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

Last week, owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked by NFL Nation reporter Paul Kuharsky, who covers the Tennessee Titans and co-hosts a radio show in Nashville, how he could convince Romo to stay in Dallas.

The Giants offense was 25th in the NFL this season, despite having some good weapons around Eli Manning like Odell Beckham Jr. It wasn’t a great complement to the team’s 10th ranked defense that played great down the stretch.

Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts did not vote for Owens.

“I think his actions on and off the field, on the sidelines, in the locker room, and the fact he played for so many teams and was such a great player,” Fouts said during a radio appearance on Nashville’s The Midday 180, “the question that comes back to me is if he was such a great player, why did so many of those teams get rid of him?”

Carmelo Anthony says there’s ‘this cloud hanging over’ the Knicks right now

NEW YORK ¡ª Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony likened the franchise¡¯s recent string of dysfunction to a cloud hanging over the team¡¯s head, a cloud that got darker and heavier after New York¡¯s 131-123 home loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday ¡ª their fourth loss in a row and seventh in 10 games.

¡°I think the other night, what happened, is just an accumulation of incident on top of incident on top of everything that¡¯s going on with the New York Knicks organization right now,¡± Anthony told reporters after the game. ¡°It¡¯s just kind of this cloud hanging over us right now, and we just have to figure out a way to get out of it. I think you have to be in it, you have to be going through it in order to understand it.

This is of note because the Wizards and Pacers are somewhat equal teams, each having rebounded from rocky starts to fixed positions in the Eastern Conference standings.

Paul George led with 31 points on 12-of-23 shooting, but John Wall and Markieff Morris combined for 52 points, including Morris¡¯ physics-defying dunk that bounced off the top of the backboard and into the bucket.

Somehow, the Heat have gone from way, way below .500 to within arms reach of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Miami¡¯s Friday win over Brooklyn marked the team¡¯s 13th consecutive win, and their wins haven¡¯t been solely against bottom-dwelling squads.

Elite Mens Nomar Mazara Jersey The Heat have beaten the Nets three times during their streak but have also picked up W¡¯s over quality teams like Golden State, Houston and Atlanta. And Miami could extend their winning streak to 14 games on Saturday if the team finds their legs in the second game of a back-to-back against Philadelphia.
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Normally NBA social media teams dish out venom toward one another, but on Friday, in a narrow Kings victory over the Hawks, well, the opposite happened. The Sacramento and Atlanta Twitter accounts took turns heaping praise on one another.

Kyle Shanahan’s mistakes in the Super Bowl shouldn’t scare the 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers knew for weeks that former Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan would be their head coach, roughly around the time that New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels withdrew his name from consideration. Once the Super Bowl was the in rear-view mirror, the 49ers made his hiring official.

It truly didn’t matter what happened in the Divisional round, the NFC Championship, or even the Super Bowl. Shanahan, who was the mastermind behind the Falcons’ top-scoring offense, was ready for a promotion. The 49ers, after firing Chip Kelly at the end of the season, were ready to name their third new head coach in as many years. Nothing Shanahan could do in the postseason would help or hurt him when it came to the 49ers.

But it sure was nice for the 49ers to see him call a fantastic game against the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers in Atlanta’s first two playoff games. Of course, it helps having NFL MVP Matt Ryan at quarterback and superhuman Julio Jones at receiver — not to mention a two-pronged rushing attack featuring Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman — but Shanahan simply called very efficient games.

Brady leveled up in the second half and overtime, but he couldn’t have done it without a superlative effort from his receiving corps. Case in point:

But the players who stepped up to drive the Patriots’ offense weren’t blue-chippers scouts predicted would push New England back to its dynastic ways. Instead, they were the late-round picks and overlooked athletes on which Bill Belichick has come to rely. Anyone in the league could have assembled the corps that made the plays that decided Super Bowl LI — although without Tom Brady at quarterback, it may not have mattered.

The Patriots needed other elements of their attack to be reliable

Grant Fuhr Limited Jersey Ryan certainly took his own words to heart and maintained a high level of focus during what turned out to be a career season. The end result was a well-deserved MVP award, announced Saturday, an honor that should silence doubts about whether Ryan is an elite quarterback. His play was the primary reason the Falcons conquered what appeared to be insurmountable odds with the NFL’s toughest schedule to finish 11-5, win the NFC South and make it all the way to Super Bowl LI.

Jason Zucker Limited Jersey It was coach Dan Quinn’s third go-round in a Super Bowl, including two trips with the Seattle Seahawks, and he had his team dialed in and prepared. The Falcons had a quality plan, opened the game with purpose and played as if they were the team with the big-game experience. But they are likely a draft away on defense to be able to close out a game like they played in Sunday night.

By the midway point, the Patriots were 7-1, the Buffalo Bills accounting for their only loss in Week 4 (Brissett’s final start). When Brady returned, he was protected by a healthy offensive line under the tutelage of veteran offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, who returned from a pseudo retirement to lead the group.

The line not only helped Brady but created options for running backs LeGarrette Blount and Dion Lewis as the team’s average of 117 rushing yards per game ranked seventh in the regular season after finishing 30th last season.

The Patriots needed other elements of their attack to be reliable, especially once Gronkowski was lost for the season due to a back injury he suffered against the Seattle Seahawks on Nov. 13.