There comes a time in a player’s career where his management decides it’s time to go in a different direction. Not necessarily because the player didn’t deliver in the way he was supposed to; but when things get stale, you have to shake it up a bit. And Donovan McNabb is now going to learn that the hard way, an expense the Philadelphia Eagles are willing to part with in favor of breathing new life into their above-par but consistently-fall-just-short franchise.
The natural question that’s emerged is where he’s headed: Oakland? Buffalo? San Francisco? St. Louis? Cleveland? It’s hard to believe that so many teams are vying for a new, aging quarterback when he becomes available. But maybe that’s the new model for success in this league, especially in the NFC where veterans like Brett Favre and Kurt Warner have shown just how much they had left when their teams suspected they had nothing left. In new cities with new coaches who can build an offense around their powerful arms, Favre and Warner achieved stats and success like their younger years. McNabb, no doubt, can pull off the same revival in the right setting. Read more
The sports world is still abuzz this afternoon over Kansas’ early exit from the NCAA tournament. Everyone who had the Jayhawks going to deep into their brackets – if not all the way – is left wondering what happened and why their plans got derailed. Kansas was the clear favorite to contend for the national title, and even President Obama had them winning it all. There are a few theories floating around about what went wrong for the Jayhawks yesterday: Read more
There’s no denying that Alexander Ovechkin is at the top of the game. Just look at the goals and points leaders and you’ll see Ovechkin at or near the top. But the true measure of Alex’s greatness is not in his ability to score goals, it’s the way he’s led his team to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
The Caps are the best team in all of the NHL right now, and it’s Ovechkin who’s propelled them there. Ovechkin leads the league in another area that sometimes gets overlooked: Plus-minus. If you want to figure out what a player is worth to his team, plus-minus is the stat to do it because it proves the actual difference that the athlete offers to his team. In fact, other sports have adopted this traditional hockey stat to help them evaluate their own players’ worth to their squads. Read more
You have to give Matt Stairs some credit – he’s found a way to last in the league without doing much. For a long period of time.
Stairs is on pace to break the record next month for the most different teams played for – 12 – over a career. Kenny Lofton, you may remember, played for 13 teams, but three of them were different stints with the Cleveland Indians. All of Stairs’ stops have been new cities where he’s been brought in to be a serviceable player and to fill a role on those franchises, for however a brief period of time. That’s the thing about rosters for pro sports teams – they have certain types of players that aren’t super star performers who make the team for the contribution they can offer. Whereas with great players we encourage them to stay with one team or only a handful of teams during their careers, other athletes actually demonstrate their abilities by their constant bouncing around the league. Read more
It seems like every year around the time of the NBA Draft, there’s discussion about the dearth of big men. Every team in the league vies during the off-season to grab whatever cream of the big man crop is out there. What winds up happening each year is that, based on the insufficiency, some teams overpay for their big men, while others overshoot in the draft to pick someone too toon who is flat-out too slow.
It’s a real gamble to grab a big man because a bad pick can set you back tremendously. While other teams upgrade, your man hurts your chances of moving up because he is worth the time investment but at the expense of his team’s success (ahem, Kwame Brown). And while scouts seek out the latest big man who will make a big splash, some teams are finding other ways to improve. By drafting guards. Read more
We’re just days in to this NFL year’s free agency and already there is an inane amount of movement. I expected to hate it. Prior to last week, NFL reality stipulated that stars are rarely traded, big names don’t change teams at the drop of a hat, and smart teams build through the draft. It’s what separates the NFL from the NBA. I expected to hate this uncapped season. Instead, less than a week in, it’s so invigorating and rejuvenating that I have to remind myself we’re barely a month removed from the Super Bowl. This season is going to be crazy. And it’s starting in March. Read more
We live in a country where one state – Utah – wants to punish mothers for not doing more to prevent their miscarriages. While this is a bit of an extreme position, there is a certain responsibility that people must undertake to prevent injury or perhaps even death. If you’re going to risk it in any realm, you have to face the fact that something bad could happen. And if it does, the blame resides squarely on the ones who didn’t do more to ward off the injury or impact. Read more
Before I start the following argument, let me be clear about two things. A) I love the United States and was as excited when they scored the game-tying goal as I was when Pitt won the Big East Tournament in 2008. (In fact, the US Hockey team jumped over Pitt Football breaking into the top five sports loves of my life: 1) Steelers, 2) Pirates, 3) Penguins, 4) Pitt Basketball, 5) USA Hockey.) B) NHL players playing in the Olympics is wonderful for the sport , and it would be a horrible detriment if they are disallowed to play in four years. Those two key pieces of information being said, I wasn’t miserable when Crosby scored the game-winner in the Gold Medal game, and I hold a little grudge against the NHL for pushing me to root against my captain oh captain. Read more
