New Quarterback in Atlanta

After Mike Vick was sentenced to jail time last year, the Atlanta Falcons have become a mess without a quarterback. This year’s draft, the Falcons showed new hope by drafting quarterback Matt Ryan out of Boston University as the number three pick overall.

The team hopes to stray away from Mike Vick and hopes that Ryan will solidify an offense in shambles. Ryan dons the jersey number “2″, once again straying away from the infamous number “7″ jersey worn by Vick.

Ryan has immediately become one of the team’s stars as he was drafted number three overall. There is alot of expectations riding on the shoulders of Ryan. The Falcons need to restore a positive team image after the horrendous past season they had.

Last season, the Falcons coach quit on them, Vick was sentenced to jail, the quarterback position saw numerous changes and the attitude of the team was horrible.  But Ryan hopes to change that and after his first practice, the team sees a good future ahead of them

Word on the Street

Its the offseason and cuts are being made and free agents are on the move. So here’s the latest player news.

Zach Thomas – Cut by the rebuilding Dolphins, Thomas received a contract deal from the New England Patriots and he is still set to meet with the New Orleans Saints. Thomas has always gained interest from the Bills, Cowboys, Texans, Broncos, and Jets. I look to see Thomas stay within the AFC East and either sign with the Bills where he would become an instant starter or with the Patriots, the team that gives him the best chance to win a Superbowl ring.

Chad Johnson - The Bengals reportedly deny having Chad Johnson on the trading block. Coach Marvin Lewis has repeatedly said that the team will not trade Johnson and has never discussed it. However Chad has said he would look good in another jersey aside from a Bengal’s jersey. His agent, the infamous Drew Rosenhaus, however has made it clear that he is brokering a trade for Johnson to leave Cincinnati.

Asante Samuel - Samuel, a free agent, wants to return to the Patriots and has said on a scale of 1 to 10, that the chances of him returning are most likely a 10. However at the same time, he said it would take alot for him to stay. Samuel has continued to prove his worth by racking up interceptions every season and wants to get paid like a top cornerback. But don’t look at the Patriots to fork over the money Samuel is looking for, especially with Randy Moss’s contract to be negotiated as well. Remember, the Patriots feel like they can replace anyone and are not known to offer lucrative contract deals to their players so I feel there is a 75% chance of seeing Asante Samuel in another uniform next season.

Don’t forget that the Falcons have made their cuts as a rebuilding team, cuts that include Byron Leftwich and Alge Crumpler. These two players will definately find a home somewhere before the start of next season. Free agency officially starts Feb. 29th and with many teams looking to start new, it could be a very busy and interesting offseason.

Change in Playoff Format?

This season’s playoffs was quite unexpected in the eyes of many, which may be one of the reason’s why NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the league are looking into tweaking the current playoff format. In Goodell’s State of the League address before Superbowl XLII, Goodell was concerned with the way teams have finished their regular season by resting their starters before the playoffs.

“The incentive should be for every team to win as many games as possible. We owe that to our fans and it’s important for clubs to be incented that way. We are going to look into the potential of seeding our teams differently after they qualify for the playoffs, so that you could potentially make more of the regular season games have significance for the postseason.“

Once a team clinches their playoff berth, the theme is that they will rest their starters for what will be “meaningless” regular season games. The Giants and Patriots did not follow this approach and played their hearts out against each other in the last game of the season and it is not coincidence that both teams then reached the Superbowl. The Buccaneers rested their starters for almost a whole month before the playoffs only to look rusty and lose in the first round to who else by the Giants.

Teams should try to win out the rest of their games after clinching a berth to gain momentum heading into the playoffs. Granted if a player is hurt, by all means rest them but other than that, teams should try to win every game as Goodell mentioned. Ratings for the NFL and ESPN and other stations that carry NFL games tend to drop towards the end of the season as fans do not tune into the epic quarterback matchups that include Jim Sorgi and David Gray. The excitement in games is lost in the last three or so weeks of the season. Watching New England and New York play the game the way it was meant to be played, for the shear competition of it in week 17 was amazing as Goodell called it “one of the proudest moments I had in the 2007 season”.

What Goodell is suggesting in terms of changing the playoff format is perhaps reseeding the teams. Of course teams that win out their division will earn a playoff berth and then two teams will make the wild card slots. However, this is where the reseeding would occur as normally the top four division winners automatically would have held seeds 1 through 4. Goodell is implying that his changes in the format would give the teams will the better record, regardless of division or wild card berth, the higher playoff seed. So for example, the Tampa Bay and New York game in the first round of the playoffs where the Giants won, would potentially have been played at New York under this new reseeding. So division winners, despite clinching a playoff berth in the season, will have to continue to win the rest of their games to ensure that a wild card team with a better record does not seed higher than them. A perfect example would have been in the AFC South, where the Jaguars finished the season with an 11-5 record, earning themselves a wild card slot since the Colts had won out the division. Now the Jaguars played the Steelers at Pittsburgh, who had won their division but had a 10-6 record. Under the reseeding, the game would have been played at Jacksonville.

However this isn’t certain, who knows if Goodell and the league will change the playoff format anytime in the near future.

Goodell Transcript

Buffalo Bills Future in Toronto?

Recently, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell approved of the Bills to play a game in the 2008 season in Toronoto, Canada. It will be the Bill’s first game in Canada, attempting to build a Canadian fanbase. The deal is one that will allow the Bills to play a limited number of games in Toronto over the span of the next five years. One regular season game during each of the next five years, each most likely being in December after the conclusion of the CFL season. The other games will be pre-season games.

The Buffalo Bills, who have become a small market team over the last few years, will try to expand their market into Canada which holds much potential. While many fans are worried over rumors of a Buffalo Bills relocation to Toronto, owner Ralph Wilson assures fans that will not happen. By expanding the Bills’ market into Canada, Wilson hopes to create a new fan base and interest thus sustaining the Bills’ future in Buffalo. Hopefully this regionalization will push the Bills from a small market team up to the big boys and become a big market team once again.

Amongst all the relocation rumors, Western New York native and Buffalo Sabres owner Tom Golisano, has repeatedly discussed the idea of purchasing the team from Ralph Wilson to ensure its future in Buffalo. While Ralph Wilson has no plans to sell the team during his lifetime, the question is what will happen with the team after Wilson dies since he does not plan to keep the team in the family. Golisano realizes how important it is to Western New York to keep the Bills in Buffalo and is keeping “half an eye on it” as he quotes. Along with Golisano is another potential buyer in Hall of Fame Quarterback Jim Kelly who is also determined to keep the Bills where they are.

Giant Upset

18-1. A record in the NFL that would usually receive a standing applause but not on this day. The Patriots entered Superbowl XLII undefeated, on the brink of perfection. A perfection that has never been reached in the NFL outside of the 1972 Miami Dolphins in a 14 game season but in the modern day game, the Pats were a game away from 19-0. But the Pats finished their season with an 18-1 record… without a championship. In retrospect, the Patriots failed what they set out to do, win their fourth championship in seven years. They did not start the season with the goal of going 19-0 in mind, 18-1 would be a great record if your one loss wasn’t the biggest game of your life.

One team stood in their way, the New York Giants. An underdog from the NFC, the lowest seed from the conference to go to the Superbowl. A team that started the season 0-2, a coach halfway through the exit door, and a quarterback criticized in the New York limelight after every game. This team stood in the way of perfection, of an upcoming dynasty, and of NFL history. Yet one word can sum up the Giants. CONFIDENT.

The Giants defensive played brilliant, making Tom Brady for the first time all season look human, Brady never spent so much time on the ground in a game all season until now as the Giants front four relentlessly came after Brady and the ball. The Giants ranked number one in sacks this season and it was no doubt they rattled Tom Brady. In the first quarter, Justin Tuck had 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble and 6 tackles. Teams during the regular season are lucky if they can even get 2 sacks and here Tuck compiled 2 sacks by himself. The Giants sacked Brady 5 times, the most New England has given up all season during their historic run. The Giants defense smacked the best offense right in the mouth all game and held the Brady and the most prolific offense in NFL history to a season low 14 points. The defense had a plan and followed it all the way through and dictated what they wanted New England to do.

On the other side of the ball, who can say more about Eli Manning. Perhaps the most criticized quarterback all season under the New York media finished his maturation under the biggest stage of them all. Remember it was the season finale against the Patriots that started Eli’s growth as a quarterback and ironically it is against the Patriots in the Superbowl that solidified his coming as an NFL quarterback. Eli played in one of the most dramatic Superbowls in history, leading his team from behind in the fourth quarter to win the game. The Giants trailed 10-14 and on a 3rd and long, Eli slipped out of the hands of five Patriot defenders and threw the ball down field for what would be a remarkable 32 yard reception by David Tyree. This play will be remembered as one of the best plays of Superbowl history and as a play that exemplified Eli’s competitive nature and his coming as a quarterback. Eli capped the drive with a 13 yard touchdown to who else but Plaxico Burress, who guaranteed a victory against New England.

“Any Given Sunday” cannot be used to explain the Giants Superbowl victory. The better team won, the Giants smashed the Patriots right in the mouth, put them in the ground and confidently carried themselves against a juggernaut of a team. The Giants just outplayed the Patriots and blatantly wanted it more as evident by the 3rd down play by Eli and Tyree. Just the determination by these two players to not give up on a play perfectly illustrated the Giants as a team. This is not an upset, not a letdown but one of the greatest Superbowls and a story of a team that stood in the way of NFL history and did not back down at all.

Giant Suprise Await Perfection.

The Superbowl match up is set. From the AFC, it is no surprise the 18-0 Patriots will find their way into their fourth superbowl in the last seven years. And their opponent from the NFC, no its not the top two seeds, the Cowboys or the Packers but it is a Manning and not Peyton. Eli Manning has the Giants playing perfect ball over the last few weeks as  the NFC wild card Giants stand in the way of the Patriot’s pursuit of perfection. Eli has turned it on in the last half of the season, especially in the playoffs as he has not turned the ball over once, which may be the key to the Giants success in the postseason thus far. Every week since the wild card weekend, everybody has picked against the Giants giving them no chance against the Buccaneers, the Cowboys, or the Packers. Yet here we are, talking about the Giants in the superbowl, I guess they don’t get caught up in all the pregame predictions like we do.

Eli Manning, in his fourth season, has matured before our eyes despite being caught in the midst of the New York media. Eli and the Giants have set an NFL record with 10 straight road wins, including three in the playoffs, one in Dallas, beating the Cowboys who defeated them twice during the regular season. And most recently, beating the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau, the frozen tundra. In the NFC Championship game, with temperatures dropping down to -4 degrees with a wind chill factor of -24, the Giants outplayed the Packers on the road. Yes, outplayed. They did not get lucky, it was the Packers who got lucky enough to even get the game to go into overtime. Brett Favre and the Packers strayed away from their running game that reinvigorated the offense during the second half of the season and propelled them into the playoffs. Relying on the passing game in a wintry game, Brett coughed up the ball twice, including one critical interception in overtime to cornerback Cory Webster. If Tynes had not missed two short field goals in regulation, the Giants would’ve wrapped up the game but instead rested all their hopes upon Tynes again in overtime to attempt a 47 yard field goal. No one in Lambeau’s playoff history has made a field goal over 40 yards and yet Tom Coughlin was willing to rest his Superbowl hopes on Tynes again. And it paid off. Tynes would’ve been run out of New York had he missed but now is a Giant hero.

So now the Manning family find themselves watching the Superbowl closely for the second year in a row as this time it will be Eli not Peyton in the Superbowl. Yet the Mannings find themselves in familiar position against Tom Brady. Brady and the Patriots are 18-0 looking to go for an infamous 19-0. Perfection. The Patriots look to defeat the Giants for the second time this season. In week 17, the Giants stood in the way of the Patriots’ perfect regular season and now they stand in the way of the Patriots’ perfect post season. If the Patriots don’t win the Superbowl, their season will have been a waste. An 18-1 record that amounts to nothing but 18 wins and no Superbowl ring, a lost season. That is how Bill Belichick and the Patriots will feel if they don’t win the Superbowl.

While the Patriots are undefeated and will do everything in their power to go 19-0, don’t expect the New York Giants to lay down and get run over in the name of unprecedented NFL history. In the last game of the regular season, the Giants and Patriots played their starters all four quarters, in pursuit of 16-0 and stopping 16-0 from happening. At that point in the season, the Giants were banged up and were just finding themselves, and yet they put the Patriots back against the ropes. The Giants actually led most of the game until Tom Brady mounted his trademark comebacks to win 38-35 in the Meadow Lands. This time the Giants are playing the best they have played all season, Eli is not turning the ball over and offensively they are healthy and have added another dimension with rookie running back Ahmad Bradshaw. Not to mention, the Giants will be playing on the road again, and lets remember Eli is 10-1 on the road this season. So don’t expect the Giants to bow down and surrender to New England, maybe there will be a Giant surprise in the Superbowl?

Banged Up Bolts No Match for Perfect Pats.

The injured big three of the San Diego Chargers, Phillip Rivers, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Antonio Gates could not muster enough to knock off Tom Brady and the perfect New England Patriots. It’s hard enough for a healthy team to play a perfect game and beat the patriots let alone a banged up San Diego team to even stand a chance. LaDainian Tomlinson found himself in the game only for the first few plays of the first quarter and Antonio Gates only had two receptions while a hobbled Phillip Rivers could not find his way into the end zone. The only offense the Chargers put up consisted of four Nate Kaeding field goals, losing 21-12. Phillip Rivers led the Charger’s offense into the red zone three times but once again, did not score a single touchdown. When you play the undefeated New England Patriots, the only way to stay in the game is to leave the red zone with seven points not three. While the Chargers defense played substantially better from their meeting earlier in the season and held Randy Moss only to one reception, they could not stop Laurence Maroney from rushing for 122 yards and a touchdown or the forever Patriot Kevin Faulk from catching a game high 8 receptions.

In the AFC Divisional round, Tom Brady completed every pass except for two, looking unstoppable but against the Chargers, Brady threw three interceptions. Yet Tom Brady was part of an ever familiar site, leading the Patriots offense down the field when it matters most to seal the game with what Brady made look like a casual touchdown. The Pats can win almost any kind of game and in any kind of fashion, proving it all season going 16-0 and again in the playoffs. The Patriots stand at 18-0, one game away from perfection however it is the biggest game they will play all season.

Potential Superbowl Match ups

With the AFC and NFC title games looming around the corner, the top four teams left in the NFL playoffs all pose interesting superbowl scenerios. First off, lets start with the match up that most fans are anticipating, the New England Patriots versus the Green Bay Packers. A match up made in heaven. The Packers, the most improved team of the NFL this year anchored by record setting quarterback Brett Favre and an emerging star in running back Ryan Grant. Who can say more about Ryan Grant and Brett Favre this season. People have been urging Favre to retire the last few years, to hang up the cleats and call it a career as the 38 year old quarterback looked finished especially surrounded by what looked to be a team trying to rebuild itself. But yet he comes back for one more season and continues to break records, leading his team to a 13-3 season and earning themselves the second seed in the NFC playoffs. Much of the success of the Green Bay Packers can also be attributed to running back Ryan Grant, who was not even the starter in the beginning of the season. Acquired by the Packers off the New York Giants practice squad through a trade, Grant made his way into the starting line up through a number of starters ahead of him becoming injured by nonetheless, he has proven to be one of the best. Grant has given the Packers the stable running game to attribute their passing game that the team has been looking for, as during the second half of the season, no running back except for LaDainian Tomlinson had more rushing yards than Grant.

Now lets talk about the Patriots. Coach Bill Belichick has his team playing perfect ball, and yes perfect ball being 17-0. The Patriots started the season rampaging there way through opponents, led by the tandem of Tom Brady and Randy Moss. Tom Brady had a phenomenal season, breaking the single season touchdown record set by Peyton Manning, throwing for 50 touchdowns, Randy Moss being on the receiving end of 23 of those touchdowns. The last few games the Patriots have played were not blowouts however, showing the league that the Patriots are beatable, yet no team has taken advantage of it yet. The Ravens, Eagles, and Giants were all so close but thats what makes this year’s Patriots great, their ability to blow teams out or come out with the clutch win in tight games. If the Patriots and Packers met in the Superbowl, it surely would be one of the most watched Superbowls in history. A match up of two amazing quarterbacks in Brett Favre and Tom Brady, who can ask for more? An undefeated team with its streak on the line against one of the only teams who made the playoffs that did not play the Pats during the regular season. Can Tom Brady lead his team to an infamous 19-0 or can the wild Brett Favre be the person to stop them? What a great match up.

The second match up, is one that fans do not really anticipate happening but it would possess it’s own quarterback story line just as well. The New York Giants versus the San Diego Chargers. Who saw these two teams making it this far in the playoffs? The chargers started the season horribly but have won their last 8 games with the team being carried on the back of LaDainian Tomlinson. The Giants are a wild card playoff team playing in the NFC championship game this weekend. The Giants could barely beat anyone at home but have won an NFL record 9 straight road games, including a playoff game in Dallas against the number one NFC seeded Cowboys, who beat the Giants twice already during the regular season. It would be a story of Phillip Rivers versus Eli Manning, the two quarterbacks that will forever be linked to the 2004 NFL draft. Eli, originally drafted by the Chargers, refused to play for them so then he was traded to the Giants who had drafted Phillip Rivers. These two quarterbacks will be tied together forever and if both teams made the Superbowl, the league would then see who made out better from the infamous trade. Regardless, each quarterback has made substantial growth and each has matured greatly this season so its obvious neither team regrets their trade now looking back on it.

The two conference championship games should be very exciting, regardless of any upsets I’m picking the Packers and the Patriots to win their games and to face each other in the Superbowl in an exciting quarterback match up.

First Post

Hey how’s it going out there?  I’m Dave Sam, yes I have two first names, I know.  Anyways I decided to make a blog since I have so much on mind about everything but mostly sports related hence the title of my blog.  So hope anyone who reads this finds what I have to say interesting!