In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Thursday.
Roy Hibbert scored 19 points and grabbed 18 boards as the Pacers took a 2-1 lead on the Heat with a 94-75 win. During the third quarter, Dwyane Wade had a heated exchange with head coach Erik Spoelstra that only ended after Spoelstra grudgingly conceded that yes, maybe E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Greydoes have some literary value.
Slapping a grade on an NFL draft the day after it happens is dumb. Slapping grades on teams in the middle of the draft? Well, that's even dumber. Everyone knows this, but we still write and read draft-grade articles at any possible time of draft reflection because the idea that a team might have just turned things around with a great draft is incredibly compelling.
Our preview of free agency continues today with those teams who should go into free agency and hold steady, even if that's not what they actually end up doing. Of the four groups of teams that make up this free agent preview, this is the closest one to a "Leftovers" set, but there's no shame in that; you can't hit the free agent market hard every year, and some of these teams enjoy annual success without pounding the pavement in March.
Of course, there are exceptions for every team. Some of these franchises are likely to lay low … unless there's a superstar that might fit the bill. Others will need to spend more time focusing on retaining their own free agents, and then a few need to just stay out of free agency for their own good. In all, this group should spend less money on new veteran free agents than the rest of the league, but we've tried to lay out scenarios where they could delve into the market to fill a hole or two. On Monday, we start with the spenders.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Monday.
According to sources, Saints owner Tom Benson is backing head coach Sean Payton despite accusations that he maintained a bounty program to injure opponents. "I think Sean Payton is great! Beep-Beep-Beeeeeeeep! No problems here! Beeeeeeeeep-Beep-Beep" he said loudly. It took code-breakers all night, but they finally realized Benson was using Morse code to deliver a hidden message: "Bounty on me, please help, they have my wife."
Redskins players came out in support of former assistant Gregg Williams, insisting that while he gave money for big hits and good plays, there was never a bounty system to reward anyone for injuring an opponent. "He would also pay us $1,000 if we threw water in his face and called him 'Little Linda' until he cried," said one former player. "But I'm pretty sure that was unrelated."
The twilight of Randy Moss' career, including a bizarre, sad exit from New England, a catastrophe of a stop in Minnesota, and an X-Files episode of a stint in Tennessee, came to a close in August when the wide receiver retired from football. Now it's open again, as Moss has announced via UStream that he will be returning to pro football.
The Super Bowl was days ago. I’m still cranky. Depressed. I’m mad at football for ending. I’m mad I won’t be able to risk ⅘ths or more of my paycheck on a three-team teaser for another seven months. I’m mad that my least-favorite team in sports has been crowned champions. Most of all, I’m mad that my favorite team in sports — while not having played in the big game (not even close) — is directly responsible for this crappy end result.
I'm sure Tom Brady is going to take a ton of solace from the fact that the image of him sitting on the Lucas Oil turf, in a state of total dejection and disappointment, has become an Internet meme, which people in offices, outside of elevators, and pretty much everywhere else you can imagine (as well as a few spots you'd rather not) are replicating.
We couldn't let the NFL season pass without talking one last time to the NFL Network's Mike Lombardi. We discussed the Super Bowl, what the Patriots should do during the offseason, whether Bill Belichick will retire, where Peyton Manning is headed, how the NFL draft is shaping up, and which team might be our 2012 sleeper. After that (40-minute mark), I called my buddy J-Bug to find out the mood in Boston after the brutal Patriots loss. Could the fans turn on Tom Brady? Are the Bruins really threatening to become Boston's no. 1 team? Should Patriots fans be a little more grateful about everything? If you ever wanted to hear a semi-broken guy with a Boston accent somehow put everything in perspective while talking in a crowded office at work, this is the conversation for you. I really need to call the J-Bug more often.
I needed a good 60 hours to recover from the Super Bowl before bringing in our buddy Cousin Sal for his final football podcast of the NFL season. The good news: Sal hates the Giants about 10 times more than I do. We had a cathartic chat about what went wrong for the Patriots, what video game strategies could have helped them, whether they should have let the Giants score even sooner than they did, whether they'll ever trade up in a draft (instead of down), why there shouldn't be a scapegoat from that game, and why I made the grave mistake of calling him right after the game. Also, we discussed Jimmy Kimmel Live's "Unplugging the Super Bowl" YouTube clip (a must-watch), Super Bowl 47 odds, and whether there might already be a sleeper bet for our next NFL champion. That's right … the gambling season never ends!
All good things must come to an end. After a long season filled with twists and turns, our coverage of the 2011 NFL season finishes up today with the Super Bowl XLVI edition of "The Fabulous and the Flops." What's that? Are you crying? Oh, you're so sweet. Now we're starting to cry a little bit, too. Don't worry! We'll be back during the offseason with NFL stuff, and with no lockout on the horizon, we can safely say that Week 1 of the NFL season is less than … seven months away. Oh dear. How does this baseball thing work again?
As we have during previous playoff weeks, our goal here is to identify players whose successes and failures were not the obvious takeaways from the games everyone just saw. Yes, we know Eli Manning played great. We wrote about it yesterday. And instead of dwelling on the negatives, let's break format in this final column and recognize three members of the Giants who played fantastic football games, even if they haven't gotten a ton of recognition for it.
Something strange is happening in the NFL, and it's about time someone had the courage to speak up. The results of recent playoff and Super Bowl games reveal a deep anti-animal agenda that is frankly alarming in this supposedly "enlightened" age.
Serious accusations deserve some serious facts, and I'm ready to be the Edward R. Murrow of the NFL's emerging anti-animal controversy.
New Englanders may feel as if they’re crunching on shells today, but they’ll always have Manhattan. Clam Chowder, that is. As the morning — and its attendant beery hangover — breaks on the day after the Super Bowl, it might be nice for those gloomy souls in Beantown to reflect on the one area in which they still hold an insurmountable edge over New York: soup.
This was a very odd game — with a very dramatic finish.
Early in Sunday's Super Bowl, the New York Giants — aided by New England quarterback Tom Brady's safety — looked unstoppable. The Giants had a huge advantage in both momentum and yards, but despite all this, they only scored nine points. Then Tom Brady and the Patriots became, well, Tom Brady and the Patriots.
Brady went 16-for-16 with two touchdown passes sandwiched around the halftime show, and New England looked like it might simply run away with the game. And then … I'm not even sure.
The Giants kicked a couple field goals, Brady roughed his shoulder up on the turf, and then — with about four minutes left in the game — the Patriots had one of the most heartbreaking sequences in franchise history: Brady and Wes Welker, who know a thing about throwing and catching, failed to connect on a throw up the seam, where Welker was essentially uncovered. Then New York quarterback Eli Manning hit Mario Manningham on a nearly impossible throw down the sideline for a huge 38-yard gain. By now, you know the rest. The Giants scored the game-winning touchdown after Patriots coach Bill Belichick smartly let them, and Brady failed to make good on his desperation drive with a late Hail Mary. Giants win, 21-17.
Let's compare those two game-changing pass plays: the failed pass from Brady to Welker and the play of the game, Manning's fantastic throw to Manningham down the sideline.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports over the weekend.
The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI. And that's after viewers were inundated with patriotic propaganda, from the national anthem to a crazy Clint Eastwood ad, without ever seeing one commercial featuring actual giants. Not one!
Eli Manning, who threw for 296 yards and led the game-winning drive, was named the game's MVP for the second time in his career. "GEE WHIZ AND JEEZUM CROW!" he shouted, waving his hat around in excitement. "GOLLLLLY, THAT'S SWELL!" He then stared at the Chevrolet Corvette he won, and wondered when Peyton would take him for a ride to the dairy for some iced cream.
Live from the Bud Light Hotel in Indy, it's more of the BS Report!
What, two hours of podcast content on Thursday was more than enough for you? How dare you? What about two more parts and two more hours of babbling? In Part 1, Patriots president Jonathan Kraft talked about Sunday's game, how to run an NFL organization, why the 18-game schedule isn't a bad idea, his mother's lasting legacy and how the Patriots might have handled that Peyton Manning-Indy situation if it had happened with Tom Brady. (Listen to Part 1 on the ESPN.com Podcenter or on iTunes.)
In Part 2, Kevin Wildes and Joe House went on a half-baked idea frenzy. You'll never think about Leap Year the same way again. (Listen to Part 2 on the ESPN.com Podcenter or on iTunes.)
