Highlights: GB/SD

After a lackluster slate of early games, 8 hours set the tone for the third month of the season.

Broncos over Raiders with both teams being led by two QBs trying to prove they belong. (Any confidence in Palmer should be tempered by the fact that QB Andy Dalton has led his former team to the top of AFC north during the 1st half of his rookie year). In the end this week’s redemption was Broncos running back Willis Mcgahee’s.

Bengals over Titans: Andy Dalton has a beast of a day while leading keeping the Bengals in the drivers seat.

Cards over Rams to OT with Larry Fitzgerald getting his 1st TD of the season from his QB of choice’s backup and Peterson’s game winning kick return

Giants over Pats with (Eli) Manning killing the Pats late.

Packers over Chargers in a spread busting game exposing both defenses as pretenders and both offenses as contenders and Phil Rivers as a QB who could be on the cusp of becoming a great or a goat while playing the greatest QB this year Aaron Rodgers.

Ravens at Steelers. Bad blood. Great game. clutch drive by Big Ben to put Steelers into the lead made irrelevant by clutch 92 yard game winning drive by Joe Flacco.

Fantastic.

I wonder if anyone else made music videos during the lockout. (h/t Yahoo! Sports)

Smith talks about the NFL negotiations in February of 2011

I’m sure Jerry Jones would have liked  for Deion Sanders to be a “no man” before he vouched for Dez Bryant prior to the draft. Sanders comments (also in the video above) on his now soured relationship with former protégé Dez Bryant:

I’m not losing any sleep by any means. It’s hard to talk to a person when they have millions man because there is so much noise in their life. Everybody around them is employed and they have ‘yes men.’ You gotta start hiring a ‘no man.’ Somebody who is going to tell you no and somebody who is going to tell you the truth and a lot of these guys don’t and when it comes to him with a lot of things I had to cut my umbilical cord with him because a lot of things people do not know about. I’m trying to open schools and get these kids prepared for the future and I can’t have that on my record saying that: How am I going to send my kids to your school and this is what you are turning out over here? No I am not turning that out over there.I have nothing to do with that and I had to cut that cord because you can’t keep doing the same old things that you’ve always done. You are going to get the same old things you’ve always got, so that’s why I had to separate myself. I love him. I see him from time-to-time. I pray for him, but as a unit we had to separate.”

ez Bryant got kicked out of college athletics early because of lying about being mentored by Sanders. Dez Bryant chose Eugene Parker, the same agent as Deion Sanders upon entering the draft. Dez Bryant still counted Deion Sanders as a mentor entering the 2010 NFL Draft:

INDIANAPOLIS – Dez Bryant’s career at Oklahoma State ended prematurely after he lied to NCAA investigators about his relationship with Deion Sanders.
That did not end Bryant’s relationship with the all-time great cornerback.
“Deion is my mentor,” Bryant said at the NFL combine. “He never talked to me about football, it was more of my personal life, just seeing if my mom was OK, seeing if my brother was OK, seeing if my sister was OK.
“He checked up on me every now and then. It made me feel good, just like any kid. It’s Deion Sanders. And he was telling me the right things, not the wrong things.”

Sanders details his own extensive mentoring of Bryant in this 2009 NFL Network  interview (transcript courtesy WFAA):

When I first started even mentoring Dez, the first thing I did, I called his receivers coach. His receivers coach told me everything about Dez, when Dez is late to school, he calls me. When Dez is a little tardy to summer workouts, he calls me. So we have an on-going relationship. And Dez helped me throughout the summer with my youth programs, as such. Now the problem was, someone, um, they wanted to question Dez about our relationship, and Dez was nervous about — Why these NCAA people have me in this room with a closed door, questioning me? Now, had I been liar, or falsified any incident or evidence, my story would have collaberated with Dez. We talked three times a week and they didn’t, because I don’t lie, and the kid said he didn’t come to my home, and in actuality, he did.

Deion Sanders, was indeed “turning that out over there”. He just failed to turn Dez Bryant into a responsible young adult professional. Beyond that, saying that he needs a “no man” sounds like Sanders is pretending he had nothing to do with Bryant getting to this point in his career.

US district judge Susan Richard Nelson issued a preliminary injunction against the owners but the NFL plans to appeal.

via BBC Sport – American Football – US judge backs players over lockout in NFL dispute.

Basically, the decision speaks to the reality that the lockout causes irreparable harm to players careers (e.g. preparation for season, bonuses lost for attending OTAs, etc.)

NFL Owners will appeal this ruling. I think in seeing “who caused the lockout” articles, it’s important to remember that the NFL owners initiated the lockout by opting to waive the last two years of the CBA. Owners wanted this battle now to change the economics for owners who routinely overspend their means (even with generous public subsidy, tax breaks and private sponsorship) when building and/or renovating stadiums.

The NHL All Star Game is today at 3PM on Versus (which means the NHL insists on getting the lowest viewer-ship possible).

The cool thing about NHL All Star 2011? The captains (Carolina Hurricanes Eric Staal and Detroit Red Wings Lidstrom) of the two teams picked their rosters gym class style from available All Stars in an 18 round “fantasy draft”. Everyone is hoping for a family feud as the Vancouver Canucks Sedin twins  and known ice toughs (Daniel and Henrik) are split between the two sides. Daniel pegged his brother Henrik as an early favorite. I haven’t checked the line in Vegas.

The un-cool thing about NHL All Star 2011? Hockey in Raleigh, NC.

The NFL Pro Bowl game is today at 7PM on Fox.

Mike Vick and Peyton Manning headline the NFC and AFC all star teams. Best thing about NFL All Star 2011? The marathon of Super Bowl recaps on the NFLN. The worst thing about NFL All Star 2011? The impending doom of an NFL lockout (Bonus: Packers players sniping at each other through the media and micro-blogging prior to their Super Bowl appearance).

Phil Hecken discusses both All Star games at the excellent Uni Watch blog.

More:

Deion Branch is crying foul because he believes the Jets being a “classless team” because of demonstrative celebrations. Branch dropped quite a few passes that may have helped his team stop the party for the Jets. He should worry about being  a better class of wide receiver. Revis is right to tell him to shut up. He had a chance to stop it. and didn’t.

The Pats are a team that regularly taunts rival teams and other teams fans after games. (I remember them taunting the Terrell Owens Eagle win flap after the Patriots beat the Eagles in the Super Bowl). So are the other 32 teams. One game that comes to mind clearly is the harmless and “classless” nonsense after the Patriots defeated the San Diego Chargers in San Diego:

“Anyway, he fumbled a punt return and I remember diving for the ball. He’s at the bottom of the pile. So I get the heel of my hand under his face mask and I’m bending the face mask. I’m really bending his neck back — and back. Everything is fair game on the ground and scrambling. He was their starting tailback. You have a chance to hurt him — put him out of there — you do it.”

via The700Level.com – Philly Sports & Minutiae: Ike Reese Was A Scary Individual.

Cue David “Deacon” Jones, NFL hall of fame defensive end and the person who coined the term “sack” speaking about his approach to defense:

You got this 265 pounds up to 4.5, you got an angle on him, he should go to the hospital and that’s exactly what I tried to do. No remorse in my heart I tried to put him in the hospital every time I tackled him.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell  is well behind the science on this topic:

But while these tragic tales resonate with fans, two people in a position to help have not come off as especially sympathetic. NFL Players Associationexecutive director Gene Upshaw told The Charlotte Observer last year that the brain-damaged old-timers didn’t pay his salary and “can complain about me all day long” for not championing their cause. Last Friday at his state of the league address, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seemed defensive when asked about Johnson. “I don’t accept the premise that [returning too early from concussions] was common practice,” Goodellsaid, “but it does concern me.”

It should. A 2001 survey by the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study of Retired Athletes looked at 2,552 retiredNFLplayers and found that 24% had sustained at least three concussions. Those who had were two to three times more likely to suffer from depression and three times as likely to have mild cognitive impairment, a precursor of Alzheimer’s disease.

via As more players become afflicted, the NFL is finding – 02.12.07 – SI Vault

Meanwhile, S.I.’s Peter King’s focus is finding a punishment that will prevent players from reckless helmet to helmet or “launch” tackling:

I will hand it to Rodney Harrison. In the year-and-a-half I’ve worked with him, he’s become more thoughtful about the game than I remember from his playing days, when his life was a seek-and-destroy mission. And Sunday, after watching a day of the viciousness, he laid it on the line on our Football Night in America show.

“You didn’t get my attention when you fined me five grand, 10 grand, 15 grand,” Harrison said. “You got my attention when I got suspended … You have to suspend these guys. These guys are making millions of dollars. The NFL [has to say], ‘We’re going to really protect our players. We’re going to suspend these guys, not one game, but possibly two or more games.’ ”

via Brandon Meriweather, James Harrison hits deserve hefty punishment – Peter King – SI.com.

In addition to a change in the punishments levied for dirty hits, the now team doctors need to become “sideline doctors”. I would envison a sideline doctor being an MDl paid by NFLPA and the NFL franchises equally so that there is no conflict of interest between their recommendations and the source of their pay checks (players want to play hurt, teams want to get every minute out of their human resources). In addition, time needs to be increased for players who have suffered a concussion to recover.

The Cowboys hammered the Eagles to death last year. 3 times last season. To add insult to injury, the last two losses ended the regular season and the post season. After that, and with Vick and Kolb as QBs of the future, Howie Roseman and Andy Reid decided to fully revamp a team that two years prior had been to the NFC Championship game.

Those weren’t just losses. They were two crushing statements that something was deeply wrong with this team.

The Cowboys jumped on top in both games, and the Eagles didn’t fight back. They couldn’t fight back.

So Eagles head coach and soon-to-be General Manager Howie Roseman tore apart the roster.

Yeah, they dumped McNabb. But they also either traded or released ineffective or disinterested veterans like Darren Howard, Jason Babin, Will Witherspoon, Chris Clemons, Sean Jones, Kevin Curtis, Chris Gocong and Reggie Brown.

They cut ties with Brian Westbrook, Jeremiah Trotter and Sheldon Brown – three of the team’s best players of the past generation.

They got rid of half the team. Some 29 players who spent time on the roster last year are no longer with the organization – 13 of them were starters at some point in 2009.

via Debacles in Dallas changed Eagles’ course.

Michael Vick is having his best regular season ever so far. McCoy is on his way to a very impressive year. D Jax and Maclin have become a prolific receiving tandem and may both break 1000 yards this year. The defense in some situations has been tops, but awful in the Eagles red zone, especially without Asante Samuel (who will miss his third game in a row this Sunday). The offensive line has been solid, but starting right tackle Winston Justice will be replaced by reserve tackle King Dunlap. Overall, the Eagles are a team no one will not get amped to play and the Cowboys are a team who is currently playing above their record.

The last place Cowboys have plagued by injuries have suffered more from a general lack of discipline that may have been remedied with the ascendancy of interim head coach Jason Garrett. There is no better way to start off the last stretch of the regular season than Eagles beating the Cowboys.

If the Eagles beat the Cowboys, they will have defeated every division opponent at least once and will take control of the race to the NFC East division title and there will be much less apprehension in Philadelphia as people will begin to wonder how far the Eagles can go in the playoffs. If the Eagles lose a fourth game in a row to the Cowboys, then most fans will wonder what else needs to change to get the team back on track.