According to Foxsports.com’s John Czarnecki, agent Drew Rosenhaus is trying to get at least $5 million a year for his client Terrell Owens. It’s enough to make us giggle, and unless the Chicago Bears do something stupid (like sign him to that kind of money), we think T.O. is going to be a free agent for a while.
Owens is 36-years old and only got that $6.5 million contract last year with the Buffalo Bills because owner Ralph Wilson was trying to make a splash. Well, Wilson ran up to the pool, yelled “Cannonball!”, jumped in and then no water moved. Owens had his worst season in 10 years and the Bills stunk.
So we just don’t see this happening. He can want $5 million per season all he likes (we want a pony), but that doesn’t mean he’ll get it. And let’s not forget, it’s not just that his skills are declining, T.O. also has the ability to shred a locker room and be a real pain in the petute.
If you’re looking for a Cinderella team to root for or even a player during the 2010 NCAA Tournament, don’t look any further than BYU and Jimmer Fredette.
The Cougars finished 29-5 this season, one of two teams (New Mexico) in the Mountain West with that many wins. The Mountain West sent four teams to the tournament this year, UNLV and San Diego State being the other two, and all of them could make some noise. However, out of these four teams, I’m taking the team (BYU) with the best player, Jimmer Fredette.
Fredette has that silky smoothness that gives you a feeling the NCAA tournament will be his stage. Fredette had six games this year where he scored over 30 points, including a BYU record 49 against Arizona and a Mountain West Conference tournament record 45 against TCU.
Fredette is great at attacking the lane and getting to the free-throw line where he shoots almost 90 percent. But if the defender gives him enough room at the top, he can drain the three, shooting close to 45% for the season. And his mid-range jumper is as good as it gets.
A police report was filed last week involving Pulu by a 22-year old who was injured at a house party. The victim was knocked unconscious and suffered a broken nose and possible cheek fracture. He was then taken to the emergency room at the University of Washington Medical Center where he gave his report to a police officer.
According to the report, the victim was at a party in the 5000 block of 15th Avenue Northeast and saw a man (Pulu) arguing with another person just after 12:30 a.m. on March 7. He tried to break up the fight, telling the man (Pulu), “It’s not that big of a deal,” at which point the man (still Pulu) grabbed the 22-year-old’s neck, telling him, “It is that big of a deal.”
PHOTO CAPTION:Two witnesses saw the man (Pulu) strike the 22-year-old in the face, knocking him to the ground, and stomping on his right temple, the police report says.
Pulu, who was also suspended indefinitely from the UW football team for a violation of team rules on March 9, will be a sophomore in 2010 and was expected to contend for significant playing time, if not a starting role, but ‘it’s not that big of a deal.’
The Oregon Ducks have decided to part ways with Ernie Kent after 13 years as men’s basketball coach.
Kent compiled a record of 235-173 becoming the Ducks winningest coach, but Oregon now sucks.
PHOTO CAPTION:Oregon Ducks alumni are pulling for Isiah Thomas to be the next coach and president of basketball operations
During his 13-year career as head coach, Kent made the NCAA tournament five times making it to the Elite 8 twice (2001-02, 2006-07). His best season was the 2001-02 season when he finished 26-9 and 14-4 in the PAC 10, winning the conference. His winningest season was in 2006-07 when his team went 29-8.
Philadelphia Phillies fans probably won’t see Dominic Brown play at Citizens Bank Ball Park this year unless there’s a bunch of injuries to their outfield, but this kid is ready to tear it up.
Against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday, the former 20th round (yep, 20th round) draft pick went 3-for-3 with two bombs and four rbi’s. One of the homeruns pretty much cleared everything that could have been cleared and landed in the service road behind the stadium. It was an estimated length of 500 feet.
PHOTO CAPTION:Yes, I did say 20th round
After the game, Brown was told by manager Charlie Manual that he will be headed to the minor leagues tomorrow, a place where he thought he was headed a couple weeks ago.
During spring training, Brown has hit .416 with 18 total bases in 11 games, also knocking in seven. These are numbers you would expect a team to keep on their roster, but the move to send Brown back down to the minors, where he will stay all season, is clearly all business. Any major league reps this year could get him to arbitration a year early.
Phillies fans can expect him to be ready to join the team in 2011 when he could be replacing Jason Werth or Raul Ibanez. Personally, I’m ready to see him play now.
Jay Glazer of Foxsports.com is reporting that the Philadelphia Eagles have sent hybrid DE/OLB Chris Clemons and an undisclosed draft pick to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for DE Darryl Tapp.
Tapp, 25, signed his restricted free agent tender a day or so ago and then tweeted, “”it is truly a blessing to have a job doing what I love to do. Always appreciating my opportunities.”
Hopefully he’ll appreciate his opportunity in Philadelphia because that’s where he’s headed. We think this is a decent move for the Eagles, but it’s most likely for depth. Tapp is young, but we don’t know that he’ll be a huge difference maker. His seven sacks in 2007 were a career high. He started five games last year and recorded 2.5 sacks just to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with.
He’s a former second-round pick, so who knows, maybe there is some potential there. But if the Eagles only had to give up Clemons and a pick, then maybe not.
Maybe Eagles fans can hope that his sacks were down because the Seahawks were usually losing and getting run on.
As for Clemons, he’s just a guy. He’s very athletic, but he’s a tweener that might be best suited for a 3-4 defense, which the Eagles don’t run.
It’s just the Grapefruit League right now, but it’s better to hear that Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels is looking very strong as opposed to him melting down on the mound after just two innings every time he suits up. But yes, Hamels was strong again on Tuesday as he allowed just two hits and one unearned run in five innings of work as the Phils beat the Detroit Tigers 6-1.
It’s not uncommon to see pitchers struggle in spring training as they work on new pitches or throw different pitches in situations where they wouldn’t normally. And Hamels is definitely trying new pitches as he has been mainly focusing on his curveball (he’s had it, but it never worked and he rarely threw it) and his new cutter. So far, it looks like the results have been favorable.
Hamels is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA this spring.
“There’s all different gears in there that you have to respect now,” pitching coach Rich Dubee said.
And Hamels threw his most devastating pitch, the changeup, just eight times. This is amazing for anyone who has watched Hamels work the past few years.
“I was really focused on throwing curveballs,” Hamels said in a high-pitched voice. “I threw a couple for first-pitch strikes. I threw a couple back-to-back to hitters. It’s just knowing I can get myself in a situation when I can throw it. That’s what really allows me to execute. Throwing the cutter, I thought I threw some pretty good ones to hitters.”
Hamels is the lynch pin of the Phils starting rotation. If he returns to 2008 form with even more pitches that he can trust, then he and Halladay might be the filthiest 1-2 punch in the NL, if not all of MLB.
Thanks to our buddy Kordell for tipping us off on this one. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Philadelphia Eagles will sign restricted free agent RB Mike Bell to a one-year deal worth $1.7 million.
“Filed to ESPN: Saints restricted free-agent RB will sign a one-year, $1.7 million offer sheet with Eagles, according to agent Josh Luchs,” he tweets.
The New Orleans Saints now have the right to match that offer. However, they tendered him so low that they will not receive any compensation should they choose to let him sign with the Eagles.
Bell gets banged up, but has proven to be a quality back who would be a nice backup to LeSean McCoy.
Former Oakland Raiders QB Jeff Garcia recently did an interview with Xtra Sports 1360 AM in San Diego and one of the topics was JaMarcus Russell. Surprised? Of course you aren’t!
“As much as I was willing and open to helping the young guy, he’s gotta want to be open and willing to be helped himself, and he’s gotta want to get after it himself, as far as his own goals, his own motivation,” Garcia said. “You can’t necessarily push those buttons with certain people. And so you know I hope he figures it out, I hope he turns it around, because if he doesn’t soon he may find himself out of this league, just by the way this league operates. They can’t wait around forever for the guy to turn the investment into a positive situation.”
This isn’t surprising, but should just add another log onto the” JaMarcus Russell will Stink Forever” fire. Although, according to Willie Brown, Russell is headed in the right direction this year.
We noted yesterday that everyone’s favorite NFL QB JaMarcus Russell of the Oakland Raiders wasn’t around the team facility for the start of voluntary offseason workouts. Well, according to Raiders director of squad development Willie Brown, Russell was closing on a house in Alabama.
“He’s trying to close a home in Alabama. It’s something that he couldn’t get out of,” Brown said. “You don’t want to lose your home. So he’ll be back in town today and ready to go (Tuesday).”
He also added that Russell has dropped a lot of weight and is in great shape. That’s great news for Raider fans.
“You’ll be surprised when you see him,” Brown said. “It’s quite a bit of weight that he’s lost . . . I don’t want to pin it down and say how much he lost but it will be a significant difference when you see him compared to last year.
“The most important thing is he’s getting in shape. Not only losing weight, but getting in shape. He’s watching his diet, he has special meals brought in that he’s eating, and we have one of the Raiders, a former player there with him to monitor him and make sure things are going fine. The weight thing, he’ll get it down. He’ll get it down.”
Hey, maybe we were quick to jump all over the guy, but we had two very good reasons: 1. His past history has led us to believe that he shirks responsibility and, 2. It’s fun.
According to a report from NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora, Pittsburgh Steelers QB Big Ben Roethlisberger was down in Georgia over the weekend (the devil went down to Georgia?) and spoke with local investigators about the sexual assault allegations. Well, a source tells PFT that that isn’t the case.
PFT’s source says that Big Ben was indeed down in Georgia this weekend, but he didn’t speak to the authorities. According to this source, Roethlisberger actually met with his legal defense team, which is probably a good idea too.
Supposedly, some of the members from his camp spoke to law enforcement over the weekend, just not Big Ben specifically. That doesn’t mean that he won’t be interviewed at some point, PFT if just saying that it wasn’t this weekend.
According to John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Hornets guard Chris Paul has been medically cleared (knee) to begin running this week and could possibly get back on the floor later in the week. Reid says that it could be against Denver or Utah this week, or possibly next Monday against the Dallas Mavericks.
Reid notes that CP3 has been running without a visible limp and was working on his three-pointers at the Staples Center yesterday.
According to Reid, Paul said that he is extremely excited about getting the chance to get out and run again. The Hornets are about 7.5 games out of the 8th spot in the Western Conference and it might be too late for him to have an impact. Regardless, there is no way they’d make up that ground without him.
On a conference call with reporters, new New York Jets RB LaDainian Tomlinson said that he’s fine playing a supporting role to second-year back Shonn Greene.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I have no ego. At this point, it’s all about having the opportunity to win a championship … The Jets made the AFC Championship Game without me. How can I come here and demand to be the starter? They were very good without me. I just want to be able to have a role on this team and contribute.”
But we hardly believe that he is getting some $5 million to ride the pine and chip in here and there. What most likely will happen is that LaDainian will be the third-down and short-yardage guy. In other words, Greene is about to have his fantasy testicles removed.
Even Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum said as much.
“We expect him to play a lot,” he said. “We expect him to touch the ball a lot.”
So, if you are in a keeper fantasy football league, try not spending every weekend at home with your parents, then think twice about keeping Shonn Greene.
According to Foxsports.com’s John Czarnecki, agent Drew Rosenhaus is trying to get at least $5 million a year for his client Terrell Owens. It’s enough to make us giggle, and unless the Chicago Bears do something stupid (like sign him to that kind of money), we think T.O. is going to be a free agent for a while. 
