Nfl Football - Football Betting

2005-11-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

Huge MNF matchup highlights Week 9
By John Clayton
ESPN.com

Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots (ABC, Monday, 9 p.m. ET) Scouting reportMonday night's Colts-Patriots game is the most anticipated of the year, and there are some interesting twists to the rivalry this time around. For once, the Colts don't have everything to lose if they can't beat the Patriots.--football gambling--

Since 2003, the Colts and Patriots have met four times with something on the line, and the Patriots won all four. The regular-season losses cost the Colts the chance to play at home in the playoffs. The playoff losses propelled the Patriots to the Super Bowl.--football gambling--

This time, the Colts are 7-0 and the Patriots are 4-3. If the Colts lose, it's unlikely it would affect their chances of having home-field advantage over the Patriots in the playoffs. In some ways, that takes away some pressure from the Colts, whose offense tends to unravel when playing the Patriots. If anything, the pressure is on the Patriots. But not as much as you would think.--football gambling--

Bill Belichick realized once he got into the season that his team was in for a tough fight. The schedule was ridiculously tough, with a five-game stretch from Week 2 to Week 6 in which the Patriots faced five non-division teams that won an average of 11 games last season. The Patriots limped into their Week 7 bye at 3-3, with a roster damaged by injuries. They had lost safety Rodney Harrison, left tackle Matt Light and halfback Kevin Faulk. Their secondary was patched together weekly because of injuries. Defensive tackle Richard Seymour had missed games with a knee injury and running back Corey Dillon struggled with an ankle injury. --football gambling--

The Colts, meanwhile, have lived a charmed life. They have faced only one team that currently has a winning record, division rival Jacksonville. Their 7-0 record came at the expense of teams with a combined record of 17-34. But that has helped solidify the Colts' confidence. The defense fought through its own injuries but ranks fourth in the league for fewest yards allowed (277.9) and is allowing an NFL-low 11 points a game. --football gambling--

Perhaps the most interesting thing happening with the Colts is how they are responding to being "Belichicked" on offense. Opposing teams have copied what Belichick has done so often to the Colts' offense. Knowing how efficient Peyton Manning can be slicing a defense apart through the air, defenses have dropped seven and eight men into coverage, taking away Manning's ability to go downfield.--football gambling--

Under those circumstances, Manning has no chance to repeat his 49-touchdown season. No problem. Manning cares more about the seven wins than the seven points and he is content handing the ball off to Edgerrin James and letting James be the team's most valuable player in the first half of the season. James leads the NFL with 801 rushing yards because Manning is seeing so few defenders in the defensive box in front of him and simply handing the ball off to James.--football gambling--

The interesting twist in Monday night's game is what strategies Belichick comes up with this time against the Colts. How will the Patriots be able to execute them? Because of a lot of different factors, this hasn't been a typical Patriots defense. It's given up 128.4 yards a game on the ground. Problems in pass coverage have let the Patriots fall to 26th in the NFL in total defense (359.1 yards per game) and points allowed (25.7 per game).--football gambling--

The return of Tedy Bruschi came at a perfect time. His presence helped seal the victory over the Bills, the only true team left in the AFC East to challenge the Patriots for the division title. With that victory Sunday night, the Patriots took a 1½-game lead and shouldn't have to worry about winning the division. But despite Bruschi's presence, the Patriots still gave up 394 total yards and 147 rushing yards.--football gambling--

At this point, the Patriots' biggest concern is getting a higher playoff seed. But they seem to be destined to get a third or fourth seed, which would add an extra game to their bid to win a fourth Super Bowl.--football gambling--

No doubt, this game will be the biggest challenge to the Colts' defense. Despite problems running the ball because of injuries in the backfield, the Patriots remain explosive on offense with Tom Brady leading the way. He's better than ever. He's completing 63.1 percent of his passes and he's getting the ball downfield to David Givens and Deion Branch. --football gambling--

This has the chance to be a high-scoring game. The Patriots need to win just to keep the seeds of doubt in the minds of the Colts. If these teams meet again, it will be in the playoffs, probably in Indianapolis. Keeping doubt in the minds of the Colts' players is important, which is why Tony Dungy knows he needs to take advantage of the situation and get this victory.--football gambling--

He won't find a better time to beat the Patriots. They still haven't gotten their defense together. By January, it could be a different story because Belichick will find ways to get this defense to peak at some point. --football gambling--

In some ways, the Colts come into this game with nothing to lose, but they also come in with more to gain. If they win, they would have a four-game edge over the Patriots in the playoff standings. They would gain a slight psychological edge if they win. But the Patriots are the Patriots. They have been the obstacle the Colts haven't been able to jump to get to the next level. Can they jump it this week? --football gambling--

This game should be fascinating to watch. John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com. --football gambling--

2005-11-02T11:33:00.000-08:00

ADELSON ON FOOTBALL: Jets season has turned into a mess

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) - Jonathan Vilma comes from a school where expectations are always high, where trash talk is a way of life and winning is more of an eventuality than a fragile hope. -NFL Football-

So, naturally, the former University of Miami linebacker boasted about the expectations for his Jets team heading into 2005. After all, New York came within inches of the AFC championship game in January, when Doug Brien missed two field goals that would have beaten Pittsburgh. -NFL Football-

In a nationally televised interview during the summer, Vilma was asked to give the odds of the Patriots winning a third consecutive Super Bowl. His response: "I'd say a billion to one.'' -NFL Football-

What about the odds for the Jets? "A lot better than a billion to one,'' he said. -NFL Football-

Three months later, a billion to one seems frighteningly close. Three of the Jets' most important players are out for the season. The offense has forgotten what the end zone looks like, while the defense barely remembers how to tackle. What started as a season with high expectations has turned into a 2-5 nightmare. -NFL Football-

"It seems like we lost our way from last year to this year,'' cornerback David Barrett said about the defense. "Last year, we were more dominant, more aggressive, and way more patient. This year, it seems we're striding away from that. -NFL Football-

"We came in a little too relaxed, thinking it was just going to be a cakewalk. It's not happening that way.'' -NFL Football-

The seeds of disaster were planted long before Vilma went before the cameras. Losing franchise quarterback Chad Pennington, Pro Bowl center Kevin Mawae and defensive leader Eric Barton only compounded the situation. -NFL Football-

Go back to February, when Pennington had surgery to repair a torn right rotator cuff. Though he hurried through his rehab to be ready for the season opener, he clearly was not effective in the three games he got to play before his season ended in September with another right shoulder injury. -NFL Football-

The offensive woes have continued with 41-year-old Vinny Testaverde, signed when Pennington and backup Jay Fiedler got hurt. Even with Pennington, the Jets might be in the same situation because of four critical decisions they made in March and April. -NFL Football-

First, right tackle Kareem McKenzie left via free agency. Without McKenzie to anchor the right side, the line has been unimpressive. Guard Brandon Moore is the only player who has started in the same spot all season. The Jets have given up 25 sacks and have no ground game after Curtis Martin won the rushing title in 2004. Meanwhile, McKenzie's new team, the Giants, are 5-2 and in first place. -NFL Football-

Then the Jets traded speedster Santana Moss to Washington to get Laveranues Coles back. Moss is second in the league with 777 yards and has five touchdown receptions. Coles? He has 385 yards for the Jets and one touchdown reception. -NFL Football-

In April, the Jets shipped the No. 26 overall pick in the draft to Oakland for tight end Doug Jolley and a second-round pick. Both have been disappointments. Jolley has seven catches for 79 yards and his role has been diminished to the point that third-string rookie Joel Dreessen got more playing time in the team's last game in Atlanta. -NFL Football-

The second-round pick? Kicker Mike Nugent, taken to replace Brien and remove any reminders of the Steelers playoff loss, has shown some flaws, too, missing three of eight field goal attempts. The Raiders shipped the No. 26 pick to Seattle, which drafted a center - something the Jets could use now. -NFL Football-

Then there is the defense, ranked seventh last season. The Jets lost Jason Ferguson at tackle, but thought they were getting an upgrade at cornerback with Ty Law. Even Law has struggled, still fighting through the foot injury that sidelined him for most of last season. -NFL Football-

Missed tackles, blown assignments and too many long drives have hampered the Jets, though the ineffective offense has kept them on the field way too long. The team has three touchdowns passing. -NFL Football-

"Maybe the hype got to us a little bit,'' defensive end John Abraham said. "Maybe it did relax us a little bit. But there's still no reason for us to be 2-5.'' -NFL Football-

Whether the Jets can turn things around is irrelevant when it comes to planning for next season. They will be left with an aging corps on offense and a quarterback whose future is uncertain. The Jets will be forced to bring back Pennington because of his huge salary-cap number of $12 million, but they might ask him to defer some money. They need to bring in another quarterback to compete for the starting job. -NFL Football-

And what about Martin and Mawae. The 32-year-old Martin is due to count $8.1 million against the cap, and he might also be asked to take a cut. -NFL Football-

Mawae, 34, is due $4.5 million, so the Jets also must make a hard decision on him. This could be a vastly different Jets team in 2006. -NFL Football-

But for now, the Jets are worried about whether they can mount an unlikely run to Detroit. -NFL Football-

"You can't let your circumstances become a part of what you are,'' coach Herman Edwards said. "You have to find a way to get out of it.'' -NFL Football-

2005-10-31T13:03:00.000-08:00

Jones In different world of NFL
Monday, Oct 31, 2005

By Harry King

ST. LOUIS - Used to the football in his hands and the media in his face, Matt Jones is in a different world. -NFL Football-

Sunday afternoon, he stood in the Jacksonville dressing room to answer questions from an Arkie in town for an update on the former Razorback quarterback and a Little Rock-based television twosome. -NFL Football-

Most of the media wanted Jacksonville quarterback Byron Leftwich, not Jones, who although never a great quote at Arkansas was a must for a post-game interviews because he seemed to be in the middle of every big play - good and bad - for more than three years. -NFL Football-

One of a kind at Arkansas, Jones is one of 1,400-plus in the National Football League. -NFL Football-

The Sunday St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a half-dozen stories on the St. Louis Rams vs. Jones' Jaguars and the only place Jones could be found was on the numerical roster. Yet, he is so appealing in his home state that hundreds of Arkansans made the trip north. -NFL Football-

"Definitely cool," Jones said later with high praise for Razorback fans. -NFL Football-

Just before leaving the field and ducking under the Ram-blue awning, he spotted an Arkansas football shirt and tossed the man one of his gray gloves. -NFL Football-

Listed as the Jaguars No. 3 receiver and the backup for Reggie Williams on the depth chart, it is difficult for Arkansas fans to comprehend Jones being third on any list or backing up anybody. -NFL Football-

In the 24-21 loss to the Rams, he had four catches for 38 yards, another game with meager personal numbers. -NFL Football-

The second touchdown of his NFL life covered 15 yards and put the Jaguars ahead 21-17 in the third quarter. He kept the ball and trotted up the sidelines to the other side of the 50 before pitching it to an equipment manager. -NFL Football-

That one might go to his parents, he said. The first one will probably be presented to his grandmother. -NFL Football-

"It's memories ... something that's pretty cool," he said. -NFL Football-

It's not the nuance of the position that is slowing Jones as much as it is gaining Leftwich's confidence. Through the first six games, Jones had caught 12 for 109. Sunday's game was his second with four catches and the TD pass was his longest reception. -NFL Football-

He misses being a quarterback, but knows that wide receiver is his position in the NFL. His dad, Steve, will tell you that Matt has been surprised by the all-day, job-like routine of the big time. The daily dose of running has also been a surprise. -NFL Football-

At Arkansas, Jones was less than diligent about practice. Coach Houston Nutt had no leverage with Jones and both of them knew it. -NFL Football-

When Jacksonville started looking hard at drafting Jones, some of the staff visited with Nutt and he told him the truth. -NFL Football-

Jones is learning to go hard all the time at practice, said Jacksonville wide receivers coach Steve Walters, and such a work ethic is mandatory for Jones to sell Leftwich. -NFL Football-

"The quarterback has got to anticipate, got to get the ball gone before he comes out of the break," said Walters, a Razorback himself in 1969-70. -NFL Football-

"It's kinda a matter of trust that he will be where he's supposed to be. He's gotta see you do it." -NFL Football-

Jones should be encouraged that Leftwich tried for him on each of the Jaguar's final three plays. Linebacker Brandon Chillar dumped Jones on a second-down throw across the middle; the next one was a hair behind him, and the final toss was short when Jones went long. -NFL Football-

Walters says Jones is making progress every week, but that it's only noticeable if you watch daily. "The biggest change is the work load, running hard and long every day and every play," Walters said. "He's got to get used to it." -NFL Football-

"I'm so much better now than I was even at the end of two-a-days," Jones said, citing Jimmy Smith as a veteran worth watching. -NFL Football-

Bending and stretching on the sideline, Jones got the cue for his appearance on the Jaguars' fourth play of the game. On third-and-6, he lined up in the slot to the left, started in motion to the right and then returned to his original spot where he jogged in place until the snap. He turned into the middle and was upended by safety Jerome Carter when Leftwich threw to him. -NFL Football-

On the field for the second series, he ran a slant from the right side. On the same pattern from farther outside, Reggie Williams was the intended receiver, but he went down and stayed down. Jones stayed in and immediately screened cornerback DeJuan Groce on Fred Taylor's 71-yard touchdown run. -NFL Football-

Midway through the first quarter, Jones caught his first pass, good for 9 yards, on a little out pattern. -NFL Football-

In the first six games, his only touchdown came on a one-handed catch against Pittsburgh. Steelers coach Bill Cower argued that Jones did not have possession, but anybody who saw him dunk over the crossbar against Ole Miss last November knows his hands are plenty big enough for one-handed control. -NFL Football-

He celebrated with a little jig and a spike. That might have been a bit of frustration because he gets single coverage most of the time and thinks he is open often. On Sunday, he said, "Some of my friends were asking me what I was going to do on my first touchdown pass and I just went ahead and spiked it. I haven't went to the Chad Johnson school of touchdown celebration so maybe I can get that in year two." -NFL Football-

"He can make hard things look easy," Walters said. "He has great hands and great judgment skills. Nobody ever told Willie Mays how to get to the ball in deep left center, but he was there." -NFL Football-

In the slot most of the time, Jones is off the line of scrimmage which makes it almost impossible for a defensive back to jam him. -NFL Football-

"We'd like for them to get up and press him because he is such a big, strong guy," Walters said. -NFL Football-

Walters, who graduated high school in Springdale and has a daughter in school at Arkansas, said he first heard about a "big tall guy faster than anybody else," when Jones was in the eighth grade at Van Buren. Walters said he told Jones that many people said the Jaguars were reaching when they picked him in the first round. -NFL Football-

"A lot of people are betting against you," he told Jones, "betting you can't become a receiver. We wouldn't have drafted you if we didn't think you were going to be a great one. You will have to fight through some things and it won't happen overnight. Try not to get frustrated ... it just takes time." -NFL Football-

-----

Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media Group's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.

2005-10-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

Denver
--- nfl ---
Tatum Bell’s 127-yard, two-TD performance on just 12 carries against a strong Redskins defense in Week Five opened a lot of eyes around the league, but what has impressed those close to the team just as much has been his work in other, less noticeable areas. --- nfl ---
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Bell, known much more for his speed than his toughness, has gotten better at finishing his runs and has also improved in picking up blitzes — an area that had coaches concerned as recently as training camp. --- nfl ---
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Despite a gaudy yards-per-carry average, Bell is still considered a work in progress, and the Broncos would like to see him become more of a complete back and maintain his focus over long stretches. --- nfl ---
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Another issue in the way of Bell becoming the featured back is the trust the team has in Mike Anderson, and his knack for earning the tough yards between the tackles. --- nfl ---
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However, the Broncos prefer to decide on playing time for their backs based on the rhythm the offense is in, and if Bell continues to make strides, more opportunities will be coming his way.--- nfl ---
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2005-10-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Injury recap: RBs hit hard

Najeh Davenport broke his right ankle, Deuce McAllister is scheduled for an MRI exam on his knee, Julius Jones missed the second half and there's no telling what's wrong with Corey Dillon.

All told, it was a rough week for NFL running backs.

Davenport scored two touchdowns as a fill-in starter for the Green Bay Packers in their 52-3 win over the New Orleans Saints, but the big fourth-year back broke his right ankle after being dragged down on a 2-yard reception in the first half. - NFL Football -

"More than likely, the seriousness of this would take away his season this year," Packers coach Mike Sherman said. "That's very unfortunate. He was playing well at the time."

Davenport, who finished with 54 yards on 12 carries, later was carted to the locker room. His 1-yard and 4-yard TD runs were the Packers' first two touchdown runs this season.

Ahman Green, who was inactive with a thigh injury, said he expected to return after the upcoming bye week. Third-down back Tony Fisher will back him up.

Saints RB Deuce McAllister will get an MRI exam Oct. 10 on his right knee, which he sprained in the third quarter. He finished with 31 yards on 11 carries; Antowain Smith rushed 12 times for 36 yards in his absence. - NFL Football -

Dillon rushed for 106 yards before he went to the locker room with an undisclosed injury late in the game, though he returned to watch Adam Vinatieri's kick give New England a 31-28 win over the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots, who are notoriously mum about the injury status of players, aren't likely to elaborate on Dillon until the Oct. 12 report is due.

Patrick Pass, Dillon's backup, had the first TD rushing of his career in the opening period, but Dillon was still playing at the time.

Jones gained 72 yards for the Cowboys in the first half against the Eagles but didn't play after the break because of an apparent ankle injury. With a 24-point lead at halftime, Dallas used rookie Tyson Thompson, who gained 75 yards en route to a 33-10 Cowboys victory.

Philadelphia defensive tackle Sam Rayburn sprained a knee ligament and tight end L.J. Smith sprained his left ankle in the game.

Chicago running back Thomas Jones rushed for 137 yards on 24 carries, but left midway through the fourth quarter with an injured right knee. Following the game, Jones said his knee felt better, and described the injury as "a bone bruise or something." - NFL Football -

Bears offensive tackle John Tait left the stadium in a walking boot with a sprained ankle.

Tampa Bay rookie running back Carnell "Cadillac" Williams was inactive against the New York Jets because of foot and hamstring injuries. Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden said after the 14-12 loss that Williams would be questionable going into practice for next week's game against Miami.

Also, Michael Clayton was limited in the game because of a sore shoulder and didn't catch a pass.

Williams tweaked his left hamstring in a 17-13 win over the Detroit Lions last week. He was replaced in the starting lineup by veteran Michael Pittman, who had 13 carries for 46 yards and seven receptions for 41 yards. - NFL Football -

Also inactive on the day were Falcons quarterback Michael Vick (knee), Cleveland WR Braylon Edwards (arm infection), Buccaneers safety Jermaine Phillips (thumb), Jets linebacker Eric Barton (sprained ankle), and Cincinnati WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh (hand).

In Houston, Texans Pro Bowl receiver Andre Johnson strained his right calf in the first quarter against Tennessee. He remained on the sidelines after the injury and returned after halftime in street clothes. - NFL Football -

Falcons linebacker Edgerton Hartwell may be lost for the season after injuring his right Achilles' tendon. Hartwell was helped off the field late in the third quarter and carted to the locker room, his right foot dangling from the side. Ike Reese, known more for his work on special teams, finished the game at middle linebacker.

Atlanta coach Jim Mora said both Hartwell and backup cornerback Chris Cash are likely done for the season. Cash went out in the fourth quarter and was immediately taken to the locker room, possibly with a broken right arm. - NFL Football -

Lions receiver Roy Williams injured his left leg in the second quarter of Detroit's 35-17 win over Baltimore and was unable to return. Williams was hurt trying to catch defensive end Terrell Suggs after he intercepted a pass and returned it 38 yards.

The Lions began the game without starting receiver Charles Rogers, who was suspended earlier in the week for four games for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

In Buffalo, Miami backup linebacker Eddie Moore hurt his knee against the Bills and will have further tests this week. It's not clear when Moore was hurt, but he was not able to finish Miami's 20-14 loss. Dolphins coach Nick Saban did not provide an update on backup cornerback Eddie Jackson, who did not return after hurting his hamstring. - NFL Football -

Receiver David Boston was held out after his knee began swelling earlier this week. He had been listed as probable after being added to the injury report on Friday.

Seattle Seahawks strong safety Michael Boulware was removed from the field on a stretcher midway through the second quarter of a 37-31 win over the St. Louis Rams after hurting his lower back. He was taken to a hospital for precautionary X-rays, which didn't reveal any significant damage. - NFL Football -

Rams coach Mike Martz was on the sideline calling plays after missing two practices last week while undergoing tests for a bacterial infection of a heart valve, and began taking antibiotics Oct. 7.

Indianapolis Colts safety Bob Sanders left the Colts' 28-3 win over San Francisco with an "arm injury," according to coach Tony Dungy. - NFL Football -

2005-10-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

Mexico loves NFL gambling even if it's tepid toward Cardinals

By Chris Hawley, The Arizona Republic

MEXICO CITY — When the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers play in Mexico City on Sunday, their Mexican hosts won't have hometown pride on the line, but they will have money riding on the game — a lot of it.

Sports betting is legal in Mexico, and every weekend thousands of gamblers line up at lottery windows or settle into cushy chairs at betting parlors to try their luck on Americanfootball. The matchup between "los Cardenales" and "los Cuarentaynueves" is the first regular-season NFL game outside the United States.

"There's going to be a lot of betting going on," Sergio Rosado Gascon, a computer engineer, said as he watched four games simultaneously in one of Mexico City's Caliente betting parlors on a recent Sunday.

In Mexico, wagering occurs two ways: through betting parlors or a government-run game called "Pro-Touch."

To get into one of the betting parlors, customers have to pass through a metal detector manned by armed guards. But inside, the establishments are a far cry from the dim, smoky bookie joints seen in movies.

There are comfortable chairs and carpeting, with bright lighting and big tables for spreading out statistics sheets. It's quiet enough to speak casually. If it weren't for the televisions everywhere, it would look like a reading room at the local library.

At a counter along one wall, customers can place bets on everything from hockey to politics. Who's going to be on the U.S. presidential ballot in 2008? The odds are on Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani right now.

Parlors also accept bets by telephone or via the Internet, but not from the United States, where betting on sports is illegal except in Nevada and Oregon, which runs a state lottery game called Sports Action.

In most Mexican betting parlors, American football is the sport of choice. Fans can place wagers on individual games or combinations of up to five games.

Guillermo Moreno Colin, a 47-year-old exterminator, said he prefers to bet on American football rather than Mexican soccer because of a general perception in Mexico that U.S. leagues are less tainted by corruption.

"In soccer, you get the feeling they're always arranging the games somehow," he said. "That's why I play Pro-Touch rather than Pro-Gol. It seems fairer."

Pro-Touch is played at the country's Pronosticos lottery windows. To win, players must correctly predict the outcome of 14 NFL matchups each week. Pro-Gol is the soccer version.

Each entry costs $1 and has a $150,000 maximum prize that keeps growing if no one wins.

The game is run by the federal government, and the earnings go to welfare programs, officials say.

Soccer doesn't even come close to American football in betting parlor popularity. One reason is soccer bets are harder to win. A gambler has about a 50% chance of winning a football bet, because there are rules to determine the winner in case of a tie. In soccer, bettors have to correctly predict a win, loss or tie — meaning a 33% chance of winning.

"Soccer is tedious. Football is more fun to bet on, because there are more surprises," bettor Oscar Palacios said.

But it also tends to be an upper-class pursuit.

With a minimum bet of $10, more than twice the daily minimum wage in Mexico, most customers who wager on football are well off. Rosado Gascon had $80 riding on the Cardinals, and said he bets up to $400 every Sunday. Palacios, who owns his own truck rental company, said he bets about $300 a week.

"It's expensive," Palacios said. "People who are earning minimum wage don't have the capacity to play like this."

NFL a big hit south of the border, even if Cards are not

Deep in Mexico City's garment district, vendor Isabel Suarez specializes in NFL jackets. For $21 each, she has the Colts, the Cowboys, even the 49ers.

There's one team she doesn't sell.

"The Cardinals? No, there's not much demand for them," Suarez said. She fingered through a rack just to be sure. "That's St. Louis, right?"

In the race to win fans south of the border, the Cardinals face an uphill battle against the likes of Oakland, Dallas and even faraway Pittsburgh.

Steelers jackets and Raiders T-shirts are a common sight in Mexico City, but Cardinals paraphernalia is as hard to find as chop suey in a Mexican restaurant.

The reasons have to do with migration, geography and the power of television, not to mention the Cardinals' miserable record.

According to the NFL's office in Mexico, seven teams hold sway over Mexico's small but loyal base of NFL fans: Dallas, Oakland, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Denver, Miami and Houston. Most of those teams got an early foothold in Mexico in the 1970s, whenNFL games first began appearing on Mexican TV.

"Those were the teams we grew up watching," Leonardo Lizarraga Ortega, 35, said.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, have a number of handicaps, beginning with the fact that they have had only one winning season since moving to Arizona in 1988.

"Their main problem in Mexico is they aren't very good," Eduardo Marin Caballero, 20, said during a break in the action at a recent collegefootball game in Mexico City.

The Cardinals also lack the tradition and bigger-than-life image of other NFL teams, said Whitney Wagoner, an analyst at the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center in Oregon.

Teams with a strong legacy always have better luck selling abroad, she said.

"The Cowboys are just big — they somehow represent Americana themselves," Wagoner said. "The Raiders are another example of a team with something extra. It transcends borders, that kind of wild, crazy, costume-wearing thing."

But perhaps the biggest reason for those teams' popularity has to do with Mexican television in the 1970s, said Jorge Iglesias, who runs thefootball website tochito.com.

"When the first games began to be shown here in Mexico, they were almost always Cowboys games, and that started creating fans," he said. "If you hated the Cowboys, then you became a fan of one of their stronger rivals, which in those days was the Steelers, the Raiders, the 49ers."

If the Cardinals want to catch up, they need to advertise in Mexico and bring more players and coaches down to hold clinics for Mexican teams, Iglesias said.

If the Cardinals keep Mexican fans in mind, eventually they'll get a following, said Lorena Andrade, a Dolphins fan and the Mexico City director of the Jeffrey Group, a marketing company.

"It takes time to build a reputation, but it can be done," she said. "It would help if they kept playing games here. They don't even have to win them, just play them."

2005-09-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

Falcons CB Mathis injures knee

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. (Sept. 14, 2005) -- Atlanta Falcons cornerback Kevin Mathis, who was kicked out of the season opener against Philadelphia after a scuffle in pregame warmups, won't be playing this week, either. - NFL Football -

Mathis injured his left knee in practice Sept. 14, and the Falcons fear it could be serious. He was on crutches in the locker room and being sent for an MRI exam.

"It's at least a sprain," coach Jim Mora said. "It locked up on him. He'll have to be evaluated further before I can tell anything more than that. It's not good."

Mathis started 12 games in 2004 and figured to be used extensively in passing situations this season, providing depth at cornerback behind starters DeAngelo Hall and Jason Webster.

But Mathis got ejected from Monday Night Football about a half-hour before it started. He traded punches during warmups with Philadelphia star Jeremiah Trotter, leading the officials to kick out both players. - NFL Football -

After watching the Falcons' 14-10 victory from home, Mathis rejoined his teammates to begin practicing for the team's Sept. 18 game at Seattle. On an innocent-looking play down the sideline, he went up to knock away a pass and came down awkwardly.

"I didn't think it was that serious," Mora said.

Mathis was taken off the field on a cart to be examined by team doctors, who determined it was a potentially serious injury. - NFL Football -

Mora said he hasn't considered what the Falcons would do if they have to put Mathis on injured reserve. Atlanta made it through the first game without any problems, keeping Terrell Owens out of the end zone.

The Falcons went into the season carrying five cornerbacks, including return specialist Allen Rossum and rookie Leigh Torrence. They don't have any cornerbacks on their practice squad.

In another potential blow to the team's secondary depth, Rossum was shaken up toward the end of practice, apparently tweaking his hamstring. He was listed as questionable.

Pro Bowl linebacker Keith Brooking (foot) and first-round pick Roddy White (ankle) were held out of practice, but Mora said they would play against the Seahawks (0-1).

Mathis and Trotter are expected to get hefty fines from the NFL, with an announcement likely to be made Sept. 15. Hall said he's also been told to expect a fine for snatching a Philadelphia player's helmet and throwing it to the turf during the scuffle. - NFL Football -

"I did get informed that they're going to be fined," Mora said. "The league has an image to protect. I thought the officials did a really good job of defusing what could have been a pretty intense situation. Unfortunately, two good players did not get to play an important game."

2005-09-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

Preseason awards and predictions
Football is a low priority, but it's time for 2005 picks

Peter King

I am going to go ahead -- foolishly, I know -- and predict the order of finish for NFL teams this year, but not for a few paragraphs. I mean, to focus on football at a time like this feels almost sinful, sort of Sodom-and-Gomorrahesque.

I was in Boston covering the Giants-Patriots preseason game last week at a beautiful hotel near the statehouse. It was about 4 p.m. and I was watching CNN. The images of flooding and despair were everywhere. I tried to write while it was on, but I had to shut off this laptop and stare. Wolf Blitzer, George Bush, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco and other people were walking through water in the French Quarter and people were crying through debris in coastal Mississippi. I called the PR man of the Saints, Greg Bensel, in San Jose, Calif., and found it hard to ask him about the team's plans for the next few weeks.

"How is your house?'' I wondered. "Is it still there?'' (It is, he thought.)

I went to a long-ago arranged dinner with the Patriots' owner, Bob Kraft. We talked about the league, his team and Tedy Bruschi, and then I had to raise the issue I couldn't get off my mind. The hurricane and the images from TV. Eating this phenomenal meal while thousands of people were scrambling for their lives in an NFL city not very far away.

"Do you ever sit back and think how lucky you are? How lucky we all are?'' I asked.

Kraft said he did and realized how fortunate his family was to have the support from fans, to have the three Super Bowls and to live the life he does. I'm pretty sure he was sincere, not just responding to some primitive wailing he might have felt from my voice, and I appreciated that.

Two things struck me Thursday as the chaos got more chaotic. First, Saints GM Mickey Loomis responding to my empathy for his situation by saying, "Do not feel sorry for me. Do not feel sorry for our team. Not with what we're seeing nonstop on television. Feel for the people of New Orleans.'' And Warrick Dunn took time on his bus ride to the Falcons' preseason game in south Florida to call me on a cell phone and tell me why he was challenging every NFL player to give $5,000 to hurricane relief. "I have to do something,'' Dunn said. "This is one of the worst things to happen in the history of our country. We can't just sit and watch.''

I told a few of the Patriots before the game about Dunn's effort and they were enthusiastic. "I'm all for it,'' Tom Brady told me in the Gillette Stadium tunnel.

Back homeFriday, I got addicted to two things: CNN and the New York Times. What a great job those people are doing. How are they reporting with New Orleans datelines? Where do they sleep? How do they file the stories? How do they evade the looters and the gun-toting thugs? You can't pay those people enough. What a great picture those reporters and camera people painted of a slow-to-react government and a ruined city.

Being in the middle of it is unimaginable to me. How do you avoid being overwhelmed by depression? I have such admiration for the police, guardsmen and firefighters. How did more of them not walk away? I have to turn away from the TV and/or the paper after maybe 90 minutes. I have to see a brighter reality. The nurses, the doctors, the cops, the mayor, the reporters ... they're my heroes. I'm just wowed by their perseverance and dedication.

I struggle to know if focusing on football is the right thing to do right now. The other day, I heard a debate on ESPN Radio in New York about whether the Giants were getting an unfair advantage in the schedule by playing a ninth home game at the expense of the Saints, with the league moving the Week Two game to the Meadowlands. My blood boiled. Are you kidding? What kind of idiot would think of that at a time like this? Thousands lay dying and someone would think about the advantage of playing nine home games instead of eight in a freakin' football league?

God give me the strength to have some perspective over the next six months. Please. And so I guess the best thing to do is to do what I do -- make bad predictions and comment on the state of affairs in the NFL.

2005-08-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

NFL players reaching critical mass

BY RANDY COVITZ

Knight Ridder Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - (KRT) - Kansas City Chiefs guard Brian Waters trembled as he sat in a restaurant watching the news reports out of Denver.

Waters played the same position as San Francisco's Thomas Herrion, who collapsed and died in the locker room after a preseason game in a stadium the Chiefs visit every season.

Making it even more eerie for Waters was that he and Herrion are from the same part of north Texas, and both took the same path to theNFL. They were undrafted out of college and toiled as practice-squad players and in NFL Europe.

And the most important common dominator Waters shared with Herrion was that both built themselves into huge men. Herrion was listed at 6 feet 3 inches and 315 pounds, but his actual weight was thought to be closer to 330. Waters is listed at 6-3, 318 pounds.

"It shook me," Waters said. "You know that in this job we have, there are some health issues."

The cause of Herrion's death has not been determined. It's possible that a previously undisclosed heart condition killed him. Herrion's father suffered from diabetes and died last year of a stroke, and his mother suffers from high blood pressure.

Still, Herrion, 23, was the second 300-pound-plus offensive lineman in the NFL to die in the last four seasons. Minnesota offensive tackle Korey Stringer, who was 6-4, 346 pounds, died of complications from heatstroke during training camp in 2001.

Joe Waeckerle, an emergency physician retained by the Chiefs, is not convinced that Herrion's size contributed to his death.

"You take all the deaths under 30 in athletes," Waeckerle said, "and the most common cause of death is congenital abnormalities, especially of the heart. It's a question of what God gave you when you're born."

Until the passing of Stringer, who was thought to be taking a diet supplement at the time of his death, the NFL has had only two noncontact fatalities since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. Detroit's Chuck Hughes, a 5-11, 175-pound wide receiver, died of a heart attack in a 1971 game against Chicago, and the St. Louis Cardinals' J.V. Cain, a 6-4, 225-pound tight end, died of a heart attack at training camp in 1979.

So the deaths of Stringer and Herrion have some wondering whether too many players are risking their health - and their lives - by bulking up too much.

"We need to understand these guys are bigger than most people in society," NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue told reporters after Herrion's memorial service. "They are fitter than most people in society, and their jobs are more demanding. . . . We need to understand in a serious way what the risks are, to the extent there are risk factors. We've got to address them. We are working on it."

There was a time when 300-pounders were rarities. As recently as 1990, only 39 players on NFL rosters exceeded 300 pounds. Last year, 370 players were listed at more than 300 pounds.

This summer, NFL teams listed 552 players at 300 pounds or more on training camp rosters, with Cleveland, Green Bay and Houston having the most at 23; the Jets the fewest with nine.

The Chiefs have 18 players in camp who are at least 300 pounds, the heaviest being defensive lineman Junior Siavii at 336.

About 11 of those players should make the final roster, including offensive linemen Waters, Will Shields, Willie Roaf (both at 320), John Welbourn (310), Chris Bober (310), Kevin Sampson (312), Jordan Black (304) and Brett Williams (321), and defensive lineman Siavii, Lional Dalton (315) and Ryan Sims (315).

"Because of my height, because of the way my body is built, 310 is good for me," Waters said. "But the 330, 340 guys, I would venture to say there's not too many 350-pound guys who are stronger than me.

"That's the thing that is bothersome about it. A lot of that weight is dead weight, and it's useless. Any coach or any team that says, `We need you big and strong and bigger and bigger,' that's not being realistic. That does nothing for you."

The Chiefs don't seek players weighing in the 340s and 350s such as Arizona offensive tackle Leonard Davis (366) or Oakland defensive tackle Ted Washington (365 ) because their schemes require athleticism and agility, especially on the offensive line, where getting to the perimeter is essential.

"Willie Roaf is 320 pounds," Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson said, "but he's as light on his feet as anyone I know."

But now it's center Casey Wiegmann, at 285, who is considered a rarity. Of the 61 offensive linemen at the NFL scouting combine last February, 58 weighed at least 300 pounds; two were at 298, one at 299.

Chiefs rookie Will Svitek, a sixth-round draft pick, began his career at Stanford as a 235-pound tight end and is now trying to make it in theNFL as a 300-pound offensive tackle. Svitek, who played defensive line in college, acknowledges the pressure to get bigger, so he spends countless hours in the weight room.

"Without a doubt," said Svitek, who stands a strapping 6 feet 6. "I gained 75 pounds in college. You definitely need to be a certain weight to play in this league, but I put that pressure on myself. I know for me to succeed in this league, I need to weigh over 300 pounds. But I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life."

Waters, a former 215-pound college tight end before switching to defensive end and then offensive line as a professional, understands the dilemma facing young players like Svitek.

"The thing that bothers me the most," Waters said, "is you realize when guys go through weight gains and then drop weight, you know it's not good for your body. (Herrion) wasn't an outrageously big guy. But there are a ton of those guys in this league.

"It's something you wish the NFL would do a little more about."

Since the death of Stringer, the NFL has made a concerted effort to monitor players' fitness and address the dangers of excessive heat and hydration during training camp. Several teams, including the Chiefs, reduced the number of two-a-day practices at camp.

Beginning in 2004, teams were required to have an emergency physician at every practice, something the Chiefs have done for years. The trainers and medical staff conduct daily weigh-ins of players before and after practice and monitor their fluid intake and eating and sleeping habits.

Herrion had three physicals in the last eight months - an exit exam when he left San Francisco after last season, another when he reported to theNFL Europe training camp in Florida in February, and a third upon his return to the 49ers.

But a physical doesn't guarantee detection of heart problems.

"The challenge for most any physicians who do sports physicals is you can't pick up stuff like this because it's so subtle," Waeckerle said. "You need some very specific tests to be done, and we don't do them on everybody. You do them only when they have symptoms or signs of a problem.

"The San Francisco player got stress by playing in a game, and afterward, if in fact he had a cardiac condition, his heart reacted, and he had sudden cardiac death. There's always the chance that something unpredictable, unforeseen can happen to anybody."

There were some questions about whether playing at Denver's altitude could have affected Herrion, especially because he was on the field during a hurried, 14-play drive in the final 2 minutes of the game. But Gary Andersen, assistant head coach at the University of Utah, where Herrion played for two years, said he never remembered Herrion struggling with Salt Lake City's thin air when he played for the Utes.

"We've all played up there in the Mile High," said Rich Baldinger, a Chiefs offensive lineman from 1983 to 1992. "I've felt the pain, the lack of oxygen, the dizziness ... you get it in the warmups."

Baldinger was listed at 293 pounds in his final season with the Chiefs but said he played at 300.

"If there was that much problem with people weighing 300 pounds, we'd have a lot more of this happening, but we don't," Baldinger said. "When it does happen ... you look at Korey Stringer. He was trying to lose a lot of weight in a couple of weeks.

"I always tried to make sure conditioning was a high point for me. During the offseason, I did whatever I could to make sure when the season came around, running was never a problem for me."

Joyce Harp, a University of North Carolina endocrinologist, published a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association that said 97 percent ofNFL players were overweight and 56 percent had a body mass that doctors would consider obese.

Many in the NFL believe the study was flawed because it fails to account for a player's muscle mass and percentage of body fat.

"If you put 300 pounds on my body, you have an obese man," said 49ers coach Mike Nolan. "If you put 300 pounds on some of our players' bodies, you don't."

But there's no denying the health risks NFL players take. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health surveyed 7,000 former players in 1994 and found that linemen had a 52 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than the general population. Recent studies have shown the average life expectancy forNFL players is 55 years old - 52 for linemen.

That bothers Waters, who would like to see the league do more for players for their life after football.

"If you're worrying about the state of the players, not just now, but in their lifetime, it's something you've got to start teaching them now," Waters said. "Guys learn all through college, they want to be big, big, big, big and get in theNFL, but once they get in the NFL, nobody says, `You've got to be healthy.' What about when you're 40; what about when you're 50?

"We need better food programs, better teaching, almost making it a requirement."

The Chiefs, like many teams, have a nutritionist on staff and provide sensible breakfasts and lunches for their players so they don't pick up Egg McMuffins on the way to work or run out for bacon double cheeseburgers for lunch.

But sometimes, the players pass up the fruit and pasta and go for the pancakes and ...

"Today we had fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy and beans and barbecued chicken," Waters said last Tuesday. "A lot of carbs, a lot of fat, a lot of grease. I know guys love it, but the reality is it's not good for you."

No one is forcing the players to eat chicken wings, and nothing says Waters can't pack a turkey sandwich. In the wake of Herrion's death, he just might start brown-bagging it.

"You're going to have to do something," he said. "You have to be concerned about yourself. I have children, and you have families . . . this should be a wake-up call to a lot of guys.''

2005-08-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

Madden NFL 06

Updated roster and new play mode notwithstanding, the Game Boy Advance version of Madden NFL 06 is roughly identical to Madden NFL 2005. The controls, interfaces, artificial intelligence, graphics, audio, and pretty much everything else in this latest game are mostly unchanged from the previous one. That's not a complete negative, since last year's game delivered some great football, but you may be disappointed if you were hoping to see significant upgrades to this year's model.
Exient Entertainment, the game's developer, made numerous improvements when it took over development from Budcat Creations last year. The folks at Exient made the AI smarter, put in adjustable difficulty sliders, made the field easier to see by pulling back the camera viewpoint, and made the playbook easier to understand by including diagrams of the receivers' actual routes. Madden NFL 06 also incorporates all those improvements but doesn't bring any fixes or enhancements of its own to the table. In fact, the development team didn't even implement the heavily hyped quarterback-vision-passing feature that was newly added to the console versions of Madden NFL 06. It did add a new play mode, however, called minicamp. Minicamp mode is a set of four minigames involving field goals, passing, running, and tackling, and it can be played with as many as six participants by passing around a single GBA. Although it may be disappointing to some that the GBA version of Madden NFL 06 doesn't play the same as its console counterparts, there's no denying that it's a solid, well-rounded football game in its own right. Beginners can dive right in and start picking and running plays just by making use of the D pad and the A button. Seasoned players, meanwhile, can take advantage of expert controls that let players reverse plays, call audibles, and spin and dive all over the field. The playbook contains more than 400 different offensive and defensive plays. After picking a play, you can initiate the snap by tapping the A button, or you can change the play on the fly (known as an "audible") by tapping the B button. After the snap, the iconic passing system lets you toss the ball from the quarterback to one of three preset receivers using the GBA's button array. On offense, the GBA's button layout lets you tell your receivers and running backs to sprint, dive, spin, or juke. On defense, you can make your linemen sprint, jump, or leap. Whether an interception or a tackle occurs depends on where the receiver is with respect to the ball and the defender. The CPU seems to play an intelligent game. In particular, it's good about passing to the most open receiver on offense and deflecting long-range passes on defense. Madden NFL 06 is also a perfect fit for the GBA's "play anywhere" portability. It includes numerous play modes that are designed for short or extended playing sessions, as well as for one or multiple players. The play modes consist of season, practice, two-minute drill, quick play, situation, and minicamp. Players with only a few minutes to kill can get in a few snaps in the two-minute drill, practice, minicamp, and situation modes. The situation mode is a particularly good time-waster because it lets you set up what-if scenarios by adjusting the teams, score, quarter, time left, team of possession, downs, number of time-outs, and yards left to the goal. Players with at least 20 minutes on their hands can dive into the quick play or season modes. The game automatically keeps track of records throughout the season and maintains statistics in roughly 80 categories. Most modes support two-player link play. The new minicamp mode supports up to six players in pass-and-play fashion. All that's missing is a create-a-player feature, which is an odd oversight considering you can trade and release existing players that are already in the game.
The two areas where Madden NFL 06 could have used some sprucing up over last year's game are its graphics and audio. Visually, the game earns a pass, mainly because the skewed field viewpoint and sprite-rendered players work together in adequate fashion to convey a 3D perspective, which is no easy feat on the traditionally 2D GBA. Player bodies are tiny, and some animations are choppy, particularly tackles, but the overall flow of players down the field is relatively smooth. If you ever played Madden NFL '98 on the PlayStation, that's about what this game looks like. On the audio side of things, Madden NFL 06 comes up lacking and actually seems to have taken a step back from last year's game. The persistent crowd noise and player grunts are the same. However, both the variety and frequency of spoken comments from John Madden and Al Michaels have been reduced. All told, Madden NFL 06 isn't much different from Madden NFL 2005. If you already own the previous game and don't care about the latest rosters, there really isn't a compelling reason to upgrade. However, if up-to-date rosters do matter to you or you don't already have a football game for your GBA, then don't hesitate to pick up Madden NFL 06.

GameSpot

2005-08-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

Former BSU players suit up in NFL

ST. LOUIS - Two former Ball State football players made their NFL preseason debuts on Friday, helping St. Louis beat Chicago 17-13. - NFL Football -
Punter Reggie Hodges kicked six times for a 39.8 average. Three of the kicks were downed inside the 20-yard line. Receiver Dante Ridgeway caught one pass for 19 yards.
Both players were picked in the sixth round of last spring's NFL draft by the Rams.
Punter Brad Maynard, who helped Ball State win its last Mid-American Conference championship, in 1996, plays for the Bears. He did not punt in the game but was the holder on placement kicks. - NFL Football -
Safety Justin Beriault, another former Ball State player, will play his first NFL game today when Dallas plays at Arizona at 9 p.m. Beriault was picked in the sixth round last spring by the Cowboys.

THE STAR PRESS

2005-08-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

Pro football shrine gets a new class
A special weekend

Their emotions and feelings are what makes the Hall of Fame weekend so special, and why the events of the three days are so compelling. - NFL Football -
Highlights for the players include receiving their Hall of Fame jackets Saturday night at the Enshrinees Dinner at Canton Memorial Civic Center and another round of honors Monday night, when the Bears play the Dolphins in the annual Hall of Fame game. - NFL Football -
Even a casual fan would find it hard not to get caught up in the emotions.
Lions fans got firsthand exposure last year when running back Barry Sanders was enshrined. With more than 20,000 fans on hand, Fawcett Stadium had the rollicking atmosphere of game day as Sanders, John Elway, Bob Brown and Carl Eller made speeches. - NFL Football -
In the heartland of football's birthplace, heartstrings were tugged and plucked.
Green has covered many such events, but he has also had his share of recognition. He has won numerous writing awards and has been nominated by The News for a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. In 2003, he was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.
Green's streak of 39 Super Bowls is a remarkable achievement. He plans to cover Super Bowl XL on Feb. 5, 2006, at Ford Field. - NFL Football -
"I can understand why Cal Ripken wanted to keep playing," Green said. "It's a rarity. I think it defined my career."

Mike O'Hara / The Detroit News

2005-07-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

NFL introduces Mexico to first regular-season game on foreign soil

MEXICO CITY -- The NFL emphasized again Friday that if its first regular-season game abroad this year is successful, it could be the start of a broader international push.
The league "is going to look at all of the markets that have indicated an interest in doing this around the world: several in Europe, Canada, Asia," Roger Goodell, the league's executive vice president. Goodell spoke at a news conference to talk about the Oct. 2 game between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers, the first regular-season contest outside the United States. - NFL Football -
Goodell re-emphasized what commissioner Paul Tagliabue said when he announced the project: that if the game here between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers is a success, the league might "look to play an international game, maybe on an annual basis, and rotate that around to some of the markets that have an interest globally." - NFL Football -
But the league wants to know first how the game goes in North America's largest metropolis, one that has hosted five NFL preseason games. The first of those set a league attendance record of 112,376 in 1994 when the Dallas Cowboys met the Houston Oilers. - NFL Football -
Attendance this year can't top 105,000 because of modifications since then to Azteca Stadium.
The stadium's 7,200-foot altitude has helped make Azteca difficult for visiting soccer teams, including the U.S. national team in games against Mexico. In this case, San Francisco safety Tony Parrish said: "The altitude is going to affect both teams the same." - NFL Football -
Goodell said the league will have to cope with teams' home-game stadium commitments. "We do the scheduling and most of the leases recognize that," he said, but acknowledged, "those will be issues we'll have to address as we look to how we expand this series if we find that this is the right way to do it." - NFL Football -
Mexico was chosen for the first game partly because it has the largest NFL fan base outside of the United States and regularly televised games have created loyal fans of the Cowboys, 49ers and Pittsburgh Steelers, among others.
The country also has a national collegiate league and the NFL sponsors a national touch football series for youths. - NFL Football -
The Cardinals are the home team, in part because they stand to lose little from their home gate. The team, which is moving into a modern new stadium last year, often is lucky to fill half the seats at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., its home field. - NFL Football -

John Rice / Associated Press

2005-07-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Former NFL player gets 15 years in DUI crash

Former NFL and Arena Football League player Darion Conner was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday for killing a bicyclist while he was driving drunk.
A jury found Conner guilty last week of DUI-manslaughter and vehicular homicide, both second-degree felonies. - NFL Football -
Witnesses testified they saw the 37-year-old Conner driving his Toyota Land Cruiser erratically before slamming into Jonathan Michael Conklin around 1:50 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2004. The collision sent Conklin, 32, flying about 200 feet through the air, prosecutors said. He died at the scene.
Investigators who arrived a few minutes later said they found Conner passed out behind the wheel with alcohol on his breath. His blood-alcohol level was tested at 0.27 percent, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08. - NFL Football -
Jurors also were shown a video of Conner, who has several previous DUI convictions, flunking a sobriety test. - NFL Football -
Conner spent eight seasons as a defensive lineman in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, Carolina Panthers and Philadelphia Eagles. The Jackson State University product spent the last six years playing for the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League. - NFL Football -

The Associated Press

2005-07-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

Derek Pereira takes over as Mahindra United's coach

MUMBAI, JUL 11 (PTI)
Mumbai's top football outfit Mahindra United today signed up former international defender Derek Pereira as their new coach for the season ahead for an undisclosed sum.
"We are determined to win the National Football League in the next season and are signing up Pereira as our new coach towards this end. We are confident his strategic excellence would guide the team towards our goal," Mahindra United's President Alan Durante said at a press conference here after Pereira signed on the dotted line. - NFL Football -
Durante described Pereira, who replaces Syed Naeemuddin, as "young, energetic and stratetic".
Durante said the club had managed to retain most of the top Indian players, including international Shamugham Venkatesh, for the season ahead and is planning to rope in some good 'strikers' from overseas. - NFL Football -
"We made a mistake with our foreign signings last year and signed them up (three Brizilians) without trying them out. We had a good set of Indian players but the team was let down (it finished overall fourth in NFL) by the foreign recruits," said Durante. - NFL Football -
This time we have short-listed a few very good players for signing up," he said.
Pereira, who was the coach of Goa's Vasco Sports Club for the last six years and had guided the club to two third-place finishes in the NFL during his tenure, said he has already started training the Mahindra players who "are gelling well as a team. - NFL Football -

Outlook Publishing

2005-07-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

Express Purpose
Playing beneath the radar, the CNY Express punts, passes and kicks toward national gridiron glory

It's not for the money. Players and coaches for the semipro CNY Express football team don't get paid and most of them don't even use the term semipro anyway. The official label is "amateur adult minor league" and their affiliation is the New York Amateur Football League (NYAFL).
But with the lights on in the stadium for an evening game, friends in the stands and a tradition of being nationally competitive, to the schoolteachers, factory workers, firefighters, construction workers and salespeople on the Express roster, it feels like semipro.
So it's not for the money.
"When you're playing it, you can't see it," recalls Ray Seals, now approaching his second year as defensive coordinator for the Fowler High School football team. In 1987, after playing for Henninger High School and spending some time in Florida, Seals was on his way to Hudson Valley Community College when he stopped off to visit friends who were getting ready for a season with the Express. He remembers he started to practice, "had a couple of good games," and wound up with a national minor-league championship. The team had already won the title in 1985, its second season, and they finished as the country's top minor-league football team again in 2004.
"I thought I was in the pros then," says Seals, who parlayed that championship season into a 10-year career in the National Football League. "Now, after being in the pros, I can see how hard it is to be committed {to a season with the Express}. They've got jobs. They've got lives outside of football. And they don't get paid."
Not only is it not about the money, players are required to pay a $100 registration fee or find a sponsor to pony up the dues. Players must also provide a photo ID and a health insurance card to suit up and must have completed 10 hours of community service before the first game. They must also invest in the suiting up by supplying their own shoulder pads, footwear and black helmet. Express management, headed by general manager Chris Gorman, supplies a logo for the helmets, game uniforms and transportation to away games.
They say it's for the love of the game, but while nobody talks much about it, it's partly about a dream. Seals' NFL tenure, including a 1996 trip to a Super Bowl, exists in mythical proportions on the minor-league circuit. But it really happened.
"There's a big difference now," says Seals, 40, assessing the chances of any current Express player to replicate his feat. "Then there was no Arena Football, no World Football League. The only thing then was the NFL and Canada {the Canadian Football League}. Now they have several levels. But you never know."
That myth will hover over Liverpool High School's football field at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 9, when the 2005 CNY Express plays its home opener, one of 11 games on the schedule. But the players will have added motivation this year: winning a second straight national championship. Although none of them seem to be taking it for granted, with virtually the entire team returning from last year's drive to the top, they appear calmly confident that a repeat is more than possible.
First Down While mythical in scope, Seals' jump from the Express to running with the big dogs took some perseverance. "Back in high school I had a substitute teacher named Joe Riccardi," Seals says. "He was friends with Ray Perkins, who was then coach at the University of Alabama. He encouraged me to visit and my grandmother paid for me to fly down. I was impressed, but after I finished playing at Henninger, I moved to Florida with my mother. But I stayed in touch with Joe Riccardi and when I was playing with the Express he said I should be trying to connect with an NFL team."
Seals was hesitant. The NFL players strike was on that year, 1987. "If I got a shot {as a replacement player}," he says, "I didn't want to get blackballed when the {striking} players came back." Riccardi persisted and together they called the New York Giants and the New York Jets. "We were getting hung up on," Seals says. "People were saying, 'No college? No way!,' and then Joe called Ray Perkins who was coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, telling him I was the next Cornelius Bennett," a former defensive line all-star for the Buffalo Bills.
Perkins flew Seals down to Tampa, but left the field in the middle of his tryout. "I thought I must have messed up," Seals says. "But he came back out after it was over and said, 'We're going to sign you for next year. Go home and finish your semipro season and report to camp in February.' I played six years there."
In 1993 he signed as a free agent with the Pittsburgh Steelers, which played all the way to the conference championship game in 1994 and lost the Super Bowl in the last minute to the Dallas Cowboys the following year. Sidelined by an injury the following year, Seals finished his career with the Carolina Panthers in 1997.
Seals now has renewed dreams of an NFL connection. He recently took a dozen of his Fowler players to the Buffalo Bills summer camp and was pleasantly surprised to see so many people from his playing days now in NFL coaching or general manager positions.
For Chris Bresnahan, the Express quarterback, it's no longer about the dream. After toiling with the Sherman Park junior pee-wees, Pop Warner, Corcoran High School and the University of New Hampshire, in 1997 "Brezh," as his teammates call him, signed with the New England Patriots and lasted almost until the final cuts. After trying to catch on with a couple of other NFL teams, Bresnahan came home to play one game, a national championship playoff, with the old Syracuse Storm.
He moved to Florida and played parts of two seasons with the Arena League Tampa Bay Storm. After two years with the old Syracuse Vipers, he took a year off and signed on with the Express last year, throwing three touchdown passes in the team's national championship victory and being named first team all-America by the Minor League Football News. According to Bresnahan, the dream doesn't die from the physical wear and tear of the football grind.
"It's the business aspect of it," he says. "People have no idea how difficult it actually is to get to that level. I hate to crush anybody's dreams, but you're not going to be some guy on the street playing football and then find yourself on an NFL team. I'm sure there are guys who are out there {who still harbor the dream}, but you've got to have the time, 100 percent, and the connections. There are some very, very good football players that aren't in the NFL right now because they didn't know the right people."
Bresnahan says he and his teammates knew they could be nationally competitive when the season opened last year. They had won the NYAFL championship the year before without a consistent passing game. Last year they lost the league championship game to the Buffalo Gladiators, but advanced through the three-game Harvest Bowl Tournament and on to Homestead, Fla., on Jan. 9, where they beat the Detroit Seminoles, 44-31, to become national champs with a 15-1 record. Bresnahan attributes the success, in part, to Syracuse now fielding only one minor-league team.
"A lot of these guys I played with on the Vipers," he says, referring to this year's teammates. "We were competing for talent then with the CNY Express." Approaching this season--which opened June 18 at the Alex Duffy Fairgrounds in Watertown with a 28-12 victory over traditional rival Watertown Red and Black, the oldest minor-league football team in the country--Bresnahan does not expect to lose a game. The Express won their second game of the season, as well, a 55-12 trouncing of the Southern Tier Green Machine on June 25. "Wherever that takes us," he says calmly, "that'll take us."
Extra Point Express practices are held twice a week at Roosevelt Field at Midland and Brighton avenues, and with jobs and family responsibilities, many of the 46 players listed on the current roster have a hard time making them all. Evening deejay Big Smoothie on WAQX-FM 95.7 (95X) and Express center Jamie Hantke are lucky to make any. A second-team Minor League Football News all-America last year, Hantke says it's difficult keeping pace without participating in the team's regimen. "But I compensate by doing boot camp {a local fitness center routine} three days a week at 6 a.m. And I'm constantly talking to Brezh and the guys about what we need to be doing."
Bresnahan credits Hantke as one of the reasons he's still walking entering his 20th year in football and Hantke returns the compliment, saying Bresnahan's contribution to last year's success was huge. "The year before we won the league championship with only a running game," Hantke notes, "one guy running over 2,000 yards. But we didn't have the quarterback who could pass on a national championship level."
Hantke is hoping for a repeat of last year's success. "The whole team is just looking for respect for minor-league football," says the 26-year-old who is entering his seventh season with the Express.
The question of respect arose last year when the team's Homestead victory garnered front-page coverage in Binghamton's Press and Sun Bulletin but hardly a mention in the local sports pages. "What's up with that?" Express second year coach David Johnson asks playfully. "I coached in Binghamton for 24 years. I was the head coach in the high school. I also coached the semipro team there and developed a good rapport with a reporter there. A lot of people didn't even know I was coaching here.
"I had taken a year off to watch my son play at {SUNY} Brockport, and Scott Irons, who had played for me in Binghamton, told me they had talent here but coaching was lacking. Initially there was a learning curve, but it seems like a perfect fit and I've never coached a better bunch of guys. When we won the Harvest Bowl they started doing a story in Binghamton." Ironically, publication coincided with the Express winning the national championship, but still no press from The Post-Standard.
Johnson still lives in Binghamton, but began work as a treatment team leader at Hutchings Psychiatric Center in January. "This is the hardest level to coach because you're held captive by your players," he says. "You understand they're adults, they have families, they have full-time responsibilities, they have jobs, careers. They all do the best they can. We mandate that you get here one of the two practices a week and that's about all you can ask. We don't do a lot of hitting. If a player, God forbid, is going to get hurt I would rather it be in a game than in a practice. At this level guys have played the game. They know what they're doing. They have the skills. They have the techniques. You can hone them, but come Saturday night, they go out there and they know what they've got to do."
Johnson is blunt when asked if the players come to summer practices in shape. "No," he says with a chuckle. "Some do. A lot of guys do go to the gym. They work out. Physically, muscular-wise, they're in shape, but cardiovascular we need to do some training. That's my job as a coach. Conditioning last year was a big factor."
Injuries are also a factor, more so than at high levels of competition. "Injuries are big," he says, "because generally you have a starting nucleus and then you do drop off talent-wise into the second level. When you lose a starter it's key. We have guys here from 18 up to their 40s. They're here because of the love of the game. Their bodies endure a lot of pain. Last year when I took over there were many of them who were mid-30s up to early 40s. They said, 'Coach, we've been doing this for 12, 15 years, we want to win a national championship before we're too old to play.'"And it really, really is not for the money.

Walt Shepperd

2005-06-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

Myron Cope wins Pete Rozell Radio-TV award
Long time Pittsburgh Steelers announcer, Myron Cope, will be heading to Canton later this summer. Although the NFL Hall of Fame does not induct members of the media Myron Cope will be present at the induction ceremony in early August so that he can accept the Pete Rozell Television-Radio award. According to media relations director Joe Horrigan, the award recognizes “long-time exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.”
Cope recently retired after 35 years of loyal service as the analyst for Pittsburgh Steelers radio broadcasts. His off-beat vocals made him a sports icon in the steel city, and he is credited with creating the "terrible towels" that are used by Steelers faithful at home games. The 76 year old announcer will be presented with his award at the Enshrinees Dinner on August 6th, during the annual Hall of Fame Enshrinement Weekend celebration.

Nfl Football Sports Betting

2005-06-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

Madden joins NBC's 2006 football team

NEW YORK - John Madden was the first announcer Dick Ebersol thought of when NBC acquired the rights to the NFL's Sunday night package.In mid-May, Ebersol went to California to talk with the popular analyst and try to convince him to join NBC when the network begins broadcasting the NFL again in 2006. The work paid off.On Wednesday, NBC announced it had signed Madden to a six-year deal to be the network's lead analyst for their NFL coverage.
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"We're just positively giddy to have John Madden join NBC's Sunday night football," said Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.Madden has spent the past three seasons teamed with Al Michaels on ABC's Monday Night Football, a spot in which he will remain for one more season."The whole thing (is) an opportunity to go somewhere where we're starting something new, something different," Madden said of moving to NBC. "... I just think that, doggone it, this is pretty good."Ebersol said that NBC is waiting until after the NBA Finals are over to talk with Al Michaels about possibly teaming with Madden again.Before joining ABC, Madden teamed with Pat Summerall to call Fox's lead game from 1994-2001. They were the top NFL announcing team on CBS for 13 seasons before that.Known for his folksy style and his love of football's grit and grime, Madden has won 14 Sports Emmys.The former Oakland Raiders coach - he led them to a win over Minnesota in the 1977 Super Bowl - has become a pop-culture phenomenon thanks in large part to the popularity of his video game Madden NFL Football. Since its initial release in 1989, the game has sold more than 43 million copies and become the No. 1-selling sports video game of all time."John Madden is the best analyst in the history of the National Football League and, in my opinion, the best analyst of any kind in sports television history," Ebersol said. "John is much more than a football legend, he's an American icon."NBC is reportedly paying $600 million for a six-year contract that will allow the network to broadcast the NFL's Sunday night game starting with the 2006 season."Being on Sunday night, coming after all the games have been played, really gives you a unique pulpit to look at the day," Ebersol said.NBC will also be the first network to enjoy a unique scheduling twist. Beginning in 2006, the league will be able to shift afternoon games in the final seven weeks of the season to prime time to make sure that the best games are being shown on national TV.The Sunday night game was previously shown on ESPN, which will televise the Monday night game. Madden said he also talked with ESPN about working with the network on the Monday night game.NBC also gets two first-round playoff games and the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2012 as part of the deal.
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Associated Press

Nfl Football - Football Betting

Preseason awards and predictionsFootball is a low priority, but it's time for 2005 picks

NFL players reaching critical mass

Nfl Football Sports Betting

Preseason awards and predictions
Football is a low priority, but it's time for 2005 picks