The Cutler Saga

It is a sports story anyone outside of the Rocky Mountains is tired of. It is impossible to look at any website or shows related to sports, and not see the continuing saga in Denver between Head Coach Josh McDaniels, and quarterback Jay Cutler.

Since the news came out that newly hired Coach McDaniels wanted to trade for Matt Cassel, Cutler took this personal and demanded to be traded to another team. Now that this madness began, McDaniels is taking back that idea claiming Cutler is the Broncos’ quarterback.

This is a hard spot for the owner of the Broncos, Pat Bowlen. If the fences can not be mended between Cutler and McDaniels, there are not many options for Denver to get an even trade.

At this point any teams that are looking to trade for Cutler will not have a quarterback in return for Denver. Denver is on the cusp of becoming a playoff team, and not getting a solid quarterback in return would hurt their odds. They also want to make sure that they do not trade Cutler to a team that will make them regret that situation. This gets rid of any team in the AFC West or an opponent they see often.

There are few teams that could make sense for Denver to trade Cutler to.

Cleveland Browns: With a new head coach and an open spot for starting quarterback, The Browns may want to consider Cutler as the quarterback to bring this team back to a winning record. Also a positive factor is Denver could try to receive a young quarterback in Derek Anderson or Brady Quinn in return. Only flaw is that Denver takes on Cleveland this season, and would not want Cutler to gain revenge on the field against them.

Philadelphia Eagles: Despite being one win away from the Super Bowl it seems as though Philadelphia always discusses removing Donovan McNabb. This could be the opportunity for McNabb and Cutler to try to make a former team regret the trade. Especially since they play each other this season. Only issue is Denver would have to give up a young quarterback for a 32 year old, injury prone, veteran.

Detroit Lions: A team always in need of a quarterback, the Lions do not have a veteran quarterback to give in return, but do have the No. 1 draft pick. This would mean Denver may have to wait a couple years to develop a rookie quarterback when they want to win now though.

Buffalo Bills: A random team that has no trade rumors at all, but it seems as though Terrell Owens would prefer a Pro Bowl quarterback compared to unproven Trent Edwards.

New York Jets: Despite having nothing to offer it seems as though the Jets are discussed in acquiring Cutler. Although this deal seems improbable it is another occasion where Patriot fans have to worry about a Jets quarterback ruining their playoff chances.

At this point it seems too late to make any of these offers. However, if a deal comes out of nowhere this story could be similar to the Brett Favre saga last year. Cutler just better hope this one ends on a better note.

A week of frustration

After a week of being under the weather, I am back and filled with anger over events from the past week.

Let's start with last week. An injustice took place in Chicago on St. Patrick's Day. And this is not in reference to the childish fight between Doc Rivers and the referees. The issues at hand was the Chicago Bulls having the audacity to wear green jerseys on St. Patrick's Day against the Celtics. A uniform violation. 

There is this strange obsession for NBA teams who have no green at all in their jerseys to wear green alternates on St Patty's day. This makes no sense at all. Now that the Sonics are gone the only teams that should be allowed to wear any form of green are the Celtics and the Bucks.

During the weeks surrounding St. Patrick's Day the Celtics place emphasis on their green uniforms with gold numbering and lettering. In what looked like a manner to spite the C's the Bulls having choice of uniform being home team chose to wear their green jerseys instead. Having the Celtics wear their home whites.

Also on the list of frustrating moments was the officiating during the Hockey east championship between UMass Lowell and Boston University. 

A UML goal was called back due to an apparent whistle. The problem is that this whistle could not be heard on TV in any replay, or by anybody in the Garden outside of the BU bench. Watching the video Millan clearly does not have the puck, and no whistle can be heard, even the broadcasters said so.

It is more infuriating to hear the stat that in 29 calls all-time that have gone into review at the Garden, Boston University had 27 of those calls go in their favor. Another present sent to BU head coach Jack Parker by Hockey East. 

Still, despite this the River Hawks deserve a standing ovation, and congratulations from all around campus. After losing six straight games, and struggling to win close games the team could have packed it in, but They fought hard and exceeded all expectations, and set personal accomplishments along the way.

Nothing to do but wait continue on and hope things are better from here. 

Garden Variety

After the weekend the Hockey east tournament is now set to four teams, with surprises coming about from the past weekend. Lower seeds Boston College and UMass Lowell handled their first round opponents on the road easily.

The Eagles made a difficult challenge of winning at the Whittemore Center look easy on Friday night. Saturday night's game forced the anti John Muse fans to remain quiet for at least the rest of the week with the 1-0 shutout. Although they entered the tournament as a 6 seed, BC can always be considered a threat in the rest of the tourney.

The next state over the River Hawks came back from a two goal deficit to tie up Game one against Vermont with 30 seconds remaining. As if that was not heartbreaking enough, they went on to win with two seconds in overtime by a Maury Edwards goal to win 4-3. UMass Lowell did not make Saturday's game as close as they won 4-2 to complete the sweep.

While things went easy in northern New England the two series in Boston were stress filled. Maine did not get the message it was supposed to be an easy sweep for BU as the Black Bears won 6-3 Saturday. That hope and potential was lost quickly as they gave up six goals in the first two periods on Sunday en route to a 6-2 blow out.

Northeastern has a closer call against a UMass Amherst team that defeated them twice in the regular season. After falling 1-2 in the first game, and rebounding with a 4-1 victory Saturday, The Huskies were forced into overtime by the Minutemen. Finally, with 10:26 past in overtime the Huskies were able to sneak out with the 3-2 win. Another series that was harder then it should have been have people questioning if Northeastern is in a slump since losing the regular season title, or if they just have a tough time against UMass Amherst.

This weekend will be exciting as UMass Lowell takes on Northeastern at 5:00. At 8:00 p.m. the rivalry continues as Boston College looks to ruin the tournament run of top seed Boston University. Winners move on to play for the Hockey east Championship, and a guaranteed spot in the NCAA tournament.

It Seemed Like a Good Guess at the Time

It is a dream job for any sports fans. It is the equivalent to being the weatherman of sports. This time of the year has sports experts simply making guesses. On one end there is Joe Lunardi just guessing who is going to be in the NCAA basketball tournament with his bracketology. At the same time of the year Mel Kiper and Todd McShay come out of their 10 month hibernation to argue with each other about what team is going to draft what player in the NFL.

With the push for the playoffs in the NHL and NBA, Spring Training, and March Madness, it seems weird the biggest deal in sports is how everyone and their nephew has their own mock draft. It is also funny how every mock draft can not get any prediction past pick number 6 correct.

So if everyone else can get hits for making random predictions in sports, why not follow suit. Here are the "educated predictions" for the rest of 2009.

NHL:

• Despite a great regular season, the Sharks will not reach the Western Conference Finals.
• The Rangers will make the playoffs, and face the Devils in the 1st round. That way we get to see this again.

NBA:

• Even without McGrady, the Houston Rockets lose in the 1st round of the playoffs....again.
• The surprise team to reach the playoffs in the East will be the Knicks, but they will be knocked out by Boston in Marbury's revenge.
• Lebron James will not yell at his mother this year during the playoffs.

MLB:

• The Tampa Bay Rays after last year's Cinderella story will finish third in the AL East, 11 games back of Boston.
• Jon Lester will earn the starting spot in the All-Star game, but will pitch just before it meaning Justin Duchscherer will have to start.
• The surprise team to reach the playoffs in baseball will be the Houston Astros.

NFL

• T.O. will have 1,250 yards receiving, 11 touchdowns, but the Bills will go 8-8, and he will complain....again.
• Even if he does not play Brett Favre will find a way to have his name mentioned 11 times a week on Sportcenter.
• After clinching the #1 seed last year, the Tennessee titans will not make the playoffs.
• Surprise teams to make the playoffs: Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints and Houston Texans.

(Predictions are subject to be horribly wrong.)

What is the Regular Season for?

After that 6 OT thriller in Madison Square Garden between UConn and Syracuse, this is a better time then any to bring up this issue.

The exciting point of the year where conference tournaments in college basketball begin is now upon us. The only problem with these conference tournaments is that they now reached a point where it seems as though the regular season is meaningless.

Kind of the opposite to college football where one loss can cost a team any chance at a National Championship of even a BCS bowl game, college basketball has reached a point where it does not matter what kind of regular season the team has they are still eligible to qualify for the NCAA tournament because of their conference tourney.

Take the Big East for example. Although it is one of if not the best conference in the NCAA that does not mean that it has 16 powerhouse schools in it. Yet it still allows for all 16 teams to be able to compete in the conference tournament. That means that a school such as DePaul, who did not win a single Big East game, could go on a lucky streak, and qualify for the NCAA tourney.

Several bubble teams are sweating out their chance at a NCAA tourney birth because there is the risk of a team with a record not worthy of the big dance, picking up a few lucky wins in their conference tournament.

Just because a conference has 12 or 16 teams does not mean that they should have to use all those teams. Set the conference tournament to a lower number so that all those teams have to fight their way into the tourney.

While some skeptics feel as though it makes the conference tournaments more exciting with the concept that anyone can win, it almost invalidates that regular season. If any team can win they should have done it much earlier in the season, simple as that.

Camden Yards

Big Screen at Camden Yards as they host the Red Sox.

As famous as Fenway Park is there are 29 other stadiums to view a baseball game in. With Fenway Park’s average ticket price being the highest in Major League Baseball it may be easier to make a road trip, and visit another stadium.

With several stadiums within a decent road trip away, fans in the New England area have choices. With an easy commute down Route 95, and tickets starting at $8 Camden Yards in Baltimore is a stadium worth attending.

Built in 1992, Camden Yards is home to the Baltimore Orioles. The park is located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland. It is just a block over from M&T Bank Stadium and a few blocks from the Inner Harbor. The stadium holds just below 49,000 fans with ticket prices ranging from $8-$80.

View of Baltimore from Camden Yards

The design of the stadium guarantees that there are no seats with an obstructed view like older stadiums. It is surrounded by unique features such as the warehouse past right field. The location also provides a view of the Baltimore skyline from the upper deck.

“It seemed as though there was no such thing as a bad seat at Camden yards,” said Mike Bigwood. I went to a few different games and every time still had a great view.”

Although the stadium is six hours and 30 minutes away, any group looking to take a road trip down to Camden Yards will not have a difficult time. Once on Route 95 in Connecticut, the directions take the same highway from there until Baltimore is reached. After that it is another one and a half miles away from the stadium.

While driving there may not be that much of a challenge, find an affordable place to park is difficult. With Camden Yards located in downtown Baltimore, parking can be at a minimum, while the price to park appears to be at a maximum. Fans in the Boston area can find this similar to the difficulties of trying to park near Fenway Park. If close by a cab or train to there would be easier as well as cheaper.

An advantage to Red Sox fans attending a game at Camden Yards is that the feeling of being the road team does not exist. While it used to produce sellout crowds of Oriole fans in the 1990s, Camden Yards attracts more fans of the visiting team rather then the Orioles themselves. The ratio of visiting team fans to home team fans looked at least five to one.

Fans from all over Massachusetts, and other parts of New England discussing with others where they are from, and how their trip to get there was. The talk is held only between innings though as fans try to show their loyalty by doing more then just attending the game.

Concessions are around the average of any other ballpark. There are several locations to go to before and after the game. Pickles Pub, located across the street of the stadium, offered cheap food and drink. Their dozens of televisions in the bar and restraint area allowed fans to catch up on other games.

Pickles Pub, lacking an apostraphe, across the street from Camden Yards.

Although it is over 17 years old, and several stadiums have been constructed since then Camden Yards is still considered to be state of the art, and a fan favorite to attend. Aside from where their favorite team plays, many fans loved, or wish to attend a game in Baltimore.

“While I will always consider Fenway Park the best place to go, I would go back to Camden Yards in a heartbeat,” said Mike Bigwood.

Popcorn is Ready

Time to pull out the new Buffalo flavored popcorn, because Terrell Owens is now a Buffalo Bill. Two days after being cut by the Cowboys, Owens has a 1 year deal with the Bills worth $6.5 million. Funny part is that everyone believes this helps out both teams.

Dallas gets rid of one of the many distractions that the team has in that locker room, granted Owens was probably the largest distraction. The only problem is by eliminating this distraction this is going to put more pressure on Tony Romo to step up.

As mentioned in a previous blog, it seems as though Romo already has a lot of pressure to win late in the season. Now that they took away his biggest distraction, they are leaving him no option but to win now or else the job can go to Kitna.

Buffalo is the biggest winner in the deal. While considered a distraction and a locker room cancer in Big D Owens is always every one's favorite player in year one, who produces big numbers. It is always the second year and beyond where he is a big problem.

As for Owens it seems obvious that Buffalo is not where he wanted to go. T.O. always looks for a contending team with a big name quarterback. Buffalo has not seen the playoffs in almost a decade, and Trent Edwards is far from a big name player.

It seems clear Owens has rubbed many owners the wrong way with his actions, and they are not willing to try and take a risk on him. Every team he joined he has left worse off. He better be on his best behavior because if not the only option left could be the island of misfit players known as Oakland.

Beasts of the East

College Hockey talk. This is the final weekend of the regular season for Hockey East. With the first round of the conference tournament beginning next weekend, there is still a lot to be decided in the regular season. There are some great match ups and some great twists to end the year.

The battle for top seed in the playoffs is separated by just one point between BU and Northeastern. BU is looking to make a jump to No. 1 as they take on Providence in a home-and-home. For BU to clinch the top seed they need to do better then their previous meeting with the Friars.

The Terriers also need Northeastern to not pull off the sweep against Boston College, a team they defeated twice this season already including a 6-1 beat down in the Beanpot. But that is not the biggest story of this match up. It still seems hard to believe, but in order to take 1st place in Hockey East, BU will have to cheer for Boston College.

Moving down the rankings there is no better setup then for the No. 3 seed. New Hampshire and Vermont are tied at 32 points for third place. They play two games against each other at Vermont this weekend. The Catamounts need to take at least three points as New Hampshire would own the tiebreaker if they spit the weekend.

They lost their chance at home ice last weekend, but UMass-Lowell is now fighting to keep BC away from the No. 5 seed. The River Hawks host Maine for two games at the Tsongas Arena. The River Hawks have a one point lead over Boston College with the tiebreaker should they be even in points at the end of the season.

Maine is locked in as the No. 8 seed in the playoff, but look to avenge their first loss earlier this season at home against Lowell for the first time since 2001.

With our sympathies to Merrimack, they are looking to not sit at the bottom of the standings for the fifth straight season. They are two points behind Providence going into a home and home with UMass Amherst. While it may not mean a playoff birth it may still mean something to them.

A big weekend that could lead to some big changes and big match ups going into the playoffs. Another reason why Hockey East is one of, if not the greatest conference in college hockey.

Oh no, Romo

While the last post focused entirely on the Patriots and trading Matt Cassel there are other big offseason topics to discuss. For starters the quarterback trade that seemed to go virtually unnoticed.

The Cowboys Sent Anthony Henry packing to Detroit for John Kitna. It is funny how there was such little talk about this deal because of Cassel because there are so many factors that come about because of this trade.

The Lions have just about given the keys to Matthew Stafford, and told him it is his team. With Dan Orlovsky and Kitna gone all that is left is Culpepper and Drew Stanton.

Meanwhile the Cowboys are taking away from a secondary that is already in rough shape. With the Roy Williams saga continuing in Dallas, and the Pacman Jones experiment already a huge bust the Cowboys seemed willing to give up a starting cornerback for a backup quarterback far too easy. 

Unless this is Jerry Jones way of putting the pressure on Romo. After going from a man who could do no wrong to constant debates of whether or not he is overrated in a year, there seems to be more pressure for Romo to live up to that contract or else he is gone.

Staying in the division, it seems everyone outside of Dan Snyder's head does not agree with the amount that Albert Haynesworth was given to play in Washington. There is a good reason for doing this though. So that no one would notice the ridiculous contract that DeAngelo Hall was given.

Hall did not even spend a full season with Washington, and has been troublesome with other teams, and cut by THE RAIDERS, but was so impressive by Snyder he receives $22.5 million guaranteed. Who knows this may be a great offseason signing that helps the Redskins return to glory. But as we have seen before, big signings and trades did not lead to championships in Washington. 

Chief Cassel

Back in October I made a bet with my friend that all of the Matt Cassel jerseys would be marked down to at least $30 by March. Looks like i may win that free dinner after all.

Cassel was traded along with Mike Vrabel to the Kansas City Chiefs on saturday for a 2nd round pick in the draft. Obviously there is a lot to this story so best place to start is from the top.

Since the trade there has one common question. Why would New England trade away both of them for only a 2nd round pick? Not that I thought they would ask for the 3rd pick in the draft overall because the Patriots never want to pay a rookie that much, but they couldn't pick up another pick this year or possibly next year? Even the Eagles received more then one pick for Lito Sheppard.

This appears to look more like an opportunity to free up some cap space rather then build up draft picks for New England. It seems clear already that the Pats are trying to make a few splashes in free agency. Trading Cassel and Vrabel gives the Patriots almost 18 million dollars to work with. With a large need for a linebacker or depth in the secondary the Patriots could use their freed up space to lure a proven veteran, which there are a few of in free agency this year.

Getting back to the draft, with that trade New England now has three 2nd round picks to go along with the No. 23 pick overall. I'm not going to start doing a mock draf with who i believe they are going select because I can not stand those things they are never right and never account for draft day trades. With all those picks in the 2nd round look for New England to possibly trade up or for a veteran player. After all they have done it before.

The other thing this trade says is that Tom Brady is ready for next season. I will never question the Ptriots decision making, and if they have no worries then i should not either. But i really hope they are. I do not think I am ready for the Kevin O'Connell era. Then again I said that about Casell last year.

On that note I wish the best of luck to Cassel and Mike Vrabel. But I will never wish any luck to the Kansas City Chiefs. As long as this guy is there, the Chiefs will be cursed under my breath.