Around the NFL

A couple of head scratchers, the Pats release S John Lynch and WR Chad Jackson.

Ricky Williams signed an extension with the Dolphins.

The Giants sign a former first rounder to the defensive line.

Chris Brown went on the IR for the Texans.

Joey Harrington got the axe from Atlanta.

A pair of first day picks (edit, thanks Anon) are among those cut by the Bears.

The Pats are still trying to land Ty Law.

The Saints are once again forced to relocate.

Chris Simms was released by the Bucs.

Sunday Morning Sports Vortex LIVE!

Remember all, today starts a Sunday Morning tradition, The Sports Vortex goes 3 hours, from 8AM to 11Am for the NFL Season. Join Us LIVE at 8AM. Don’t forget to call at (603) 397 3559 anytime. See you there.

http://www.wjzf.org

The 2008 Red Sox/Yankees Fishing Challenge

The Weigh-in, Central Maine Sports Bog editor Matty with Stump Merrill, and a view from the deck of the boat

Another year, another Yankee loss. Yesterday’s Red Sox/Yankees fishing challenge wasn’t as much a challenge as an exhibition, as the Red Sox team outfished the Yankees team 28-8. As one member of my boat said “It’s a great day for a boat ride, but the fishing is a bit off today”. I managed to catch a whole lot of seaweed and drink a lot of Pabst Blue Ribbon, and had a great time on the Atlantic ocean. Port Harbor Marine did a great job with everything (especially the barbecue afterwards, yum!), Jeff and Toby were great as our captain and fishing pro, respectively, and I would also like to thank WJAB for selecting me. I hope to return next year and improve on the lackluster showing. Also former Yankee manager Stump Merrill took part and he was great, I got to talk about Andy Hawkins no-hitter and Kevin Maas with him (yes Yankee fans it was much worse then than it is now).

Around the NFL

The Pats cut four players and have another 14 cuts to make in order to get to the 53 man limit.

Former Pats LB Rosey Colvin was cut by the Texans.

Chad Henne looks to have the backup job in Miami secure as Josh McCown was dealt.

Matt Hasselbeck may be throwing to himself this year.

The Cowboys fill a hole on their offensive line while they have some issues at receiver.

Surprise, suprise, Al Davis is feuding with his coach.

Phillip Rivers wants to work on his image…..or he finally realized LT is why he is a winning QB.

Buffalo and their All-Pro LT remain at loggerheads.

The New Jersey Jets are not worried about the play of one of their rookies…..yet.

Cadillac Williams will have to wait to try to reclaim his starting job.

Braylon Edwards says he will be ready for the opener while explaining how he missed three weeks of practice.

Mike Tomlin expects things to improve in the Steel Ciy in his second year.

UPDATES

Kevin Faulk received a one game suspension for drug possession.

Rudi Johnson got his walking papers. 

Saturday Morning Quick Hitters

CMSB’s adopted team had a tough time with Temple on Friday. Temple took advantage of 2 early turnovers to defeat the Black Knights 35 – 7.

The June Jones era begins in College Park, Texas as Rice beats Jones’ SMU Mustangs 56 – 27.

Apparently, Ozzie Guillen, the Red Sox were able to muster some emotion to beat your Chicago White Sox on Friday, 8 – 0. Dice K 2 hits the Pale Hose to gets his 16th win.

The Tampa Bay Rays just win baby! The Rays stomp on the Baltimore Orioles 14 – 3.

Ever fickle New York Yankee fans cheered Carl Pavano this time, as he helps the Yankees to a 2 – 1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Joe Mauer and Kevin Slowey had huge games for the Minnesota Twins, as they beat up on the Oakland A’s 12 – 2. The win combined with the White Sox loss brings the Twins to within 1/2 game of the White Sox.

The battle between potential NLCS participants went to the Cubbies Friday. Alfonso Soriano’s HR in the bottom of the 7th inning caps off a 3 – 2 Cubs win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Carlos Beltran hit a top of the 9th Grand Slam to power the Mets past the Florida Marlins 5 – 4. The Mets are now 2 games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East.

The Milwaukee Brewers keeps their Wild Card lead with a 3 – 1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The LA Dodgers ship continues to take on water, this time losing to NL West leaders Arizona Diamondbacks 9 – 3. The Dodgers are 11 – 16 since the Manny Ramirez trade and have an 8 game losing streak, just thought I’d throw that it. Oh and the Boston Red Sox are 17 – 8 in the same span and haven’t lost more than 2 games in a row. (The opinions of the writer are not necessarily the opinions of the staff and contributors of the Central Maine Sports Blog)

The Colorado Rockies continue to crawl their way back into the race by beating the San Diego Padres 9 – 4.

The NFL suspended Minnesota Viking Offensive Lineman Bryant McKinnie for 4 games for his part in a Miami nightclub street brawl in February.

In yet another bizzare twist, Cincinnati Bengals WR Chad Johnson officially changed his last name to Ocho Cinco. Nope…can’t even come up with a joke.

Doubt seems to be lingering if Peyton Manning will start the opener versus the Chicago Bears next week. Everyone involved is using the word “expects” Peyton to play.

Bill Belichick Jr….I mean Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher is being very tight lipped on Vince Young’s injured hand.

The New Orleans Saints have, again, more than football to worry about.

Manu Ginobili will have surgery on his ankle.

The 1st moving vans have arrived in Oklahoma City.

Friday Morning Quick Hitters

The College Football season kicked off last night as #23 Wake Forest beat up on Baylor 41 -13. Riley Skinner threw 3 TD passes in the win.

The NY Yankees avoided a sweep at the hands of the Red Sox as Jason Giambi came off the bench to win the game 3 – 2. Josh Beckett scratched from another start and will seek opinion for elbow woes.

Christian Guzman hit for the cycle helping the Nationals to continue the LA Dodgers slide 11 -2.

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3 -2, extend their lead over the Red Sox in the AL East to 4 1/2 games.

The Chicago Cubs uses a 5 run 8th inning, powered by an Aramis Ramirez grand slam, to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6 – 4.

The Minnesota Twins slipped to 1 1/2 games back of the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central with a 3 – 2 loss to the Oakland A’s.

Pacman Jones has been fully re-instated.

The Colts brick wall center, Jeff Saturday, will miss 6 weeks with knee injury.

Houston Texans WR Harry Williams, who has a cracked vertebrate and severe ligament damage in his neck, walked out of the hospital.

The Memphis Grizzlies sign Iranian center Haddadi.

The Milwaukee Bucks and the Golden State Warriors will meet in the pre-season in the China Games.

Oh My Goodness

Stu Barns retires and joins Stars coaching staff.

A Few Words on the Patriots Pre-Season Performance

Uninspired

Awful

Rotten

Scary

Disconcerting

Odd

Troubling

Worrisome

Brutal

Disgusting

Pig Crap

BullSh*t (Trademark Frank Fixaris)

Tim Brando talking to a Div III basketball coach in July (sorry I hadn’t taken a shot at good ol’ Timmy B in awhile)

A Reader Heads-Up

Just so everyone knows, I will be taking part in the Yankees-Red Sox fishing shoot-out tomorrow and I will be away all day, but Jeff will as always do the hitters and Milwaukee’s Best may be around too. I hope to have pics from the thing as well and posted tomorrow night, along with results.

Around the NFL

LB Shawne Merriman has decided to forego surgery and attempt to play this season…..a highly risky move on his part that could, at just 26, put his career in jeopardy.

The Pats continue to experiment with their defensive formations.

The Bengals are hoping to help their banged up WR core by using RB Rudi Johnson as trade bait…… with a 2.9 ypc last year, what are they going to get in reurn?

The Jags finally get DE Derrick Harvey into camp. This guy is suppose to be the pure pass rusher they lack, but his missing most of the pre-season will not help them.

The cracks are starting to show in Indy. Peyton Manning is back at practice, but he will be without his starting center for at least 6 weeks.

The Ravens made a move to replace the injured DL Dwan Edwards.

Also in Ravens news, it appears QB Kyle Boller does not need surgery…..I am sure the Baltimore faithful will sleep at ease knowing that.

Matt Ryan was recently named the starting QB for the Atlanta Falcons, a difficult task for a first year player. Ryan will not have to look too far in his own locker room to see how this could turn out for him.

The Cowboys look to add some depth behind their superstar QB.

Speaking of back ups, SI.com’s Don Banks apparently had a slow news day and ranked all 32 of the NFL’s backup QBs.

Finally, sad news to report. Two days ago, Kyle Eckel, the undrafted fullback from the Naval Academy, was let go by the Patriots despite having as many TDs as Willie Parker and Julius Jones, and more scores than Thomas Jones.

UPDATES

The reasons as to why two former Pro-Bowlers remain unemployed are starting to surface.

First, according to Romeo Crennell, if Ty Law is going to start then he wants starter’s salary, and this is more than likely what has prevented New England from signing him thus far. The Pats brought in a slew of DB and would probably be unwilling to chew up remaining cap space for the 34 year-old.

Second, Daunte Culpepper, despite being injured for most of the past few seasons, has not convinced teams he is willing to accept a back up role as some teams believe he expects to be given the chance to compete for a starting spot. Culpepper is probably not going to get a starting job until he can prove he is healthy and can play at a high level again….playing in Oakland and Miami have done him no favors.

College Football Preview

Another season of college football is upon us, and while we here at the Central Maine Sports Blog have an affiliation with Army this season as our “adopt-a-team”, there are more than a few other teams that are out there, so I am going to take a chance here and predict the top 10.

10. Florida Gators

Tim Tebow is back, and so is Percy Harvin, but Harvin’s heel has not healed yet. The SEC is as tough as ever, so 2 loss season for an SEC team may not get a spot in the national title game this year.

9. Texas Tech

I am buying into the hype about this defense improving, and Crabtree and Harrell will both get supports in the Heisman race.

8. Ohio St

After two years of bridesmaid status, I expect the Bucks to slip a bit this year. The big game against USC will probably tell you what type of team Ohio St is.

7. Kansas

I will always support the big guy, and Mark Mangino has done a great job with Kansas. This team only lost one game last year, and returns almost all of their key players. Plus Aqib Talib won;t be getting arrested, which can only help Mangino’s blood pressure.

6. Georgia

I don’t buy into the Georgia hype. I don’t believe they will beat Florida, and I don’t see them finishing the season with just one loss.

5. Missouri

Chase Daniel is back and could very well win the Heisman. The rest of this team has reloaded nicely.

4. Oklahoma

Although they can’t win in a bowl game, they will do enough damage to get to one of the big pay days, provided Sam Bradford stays healthy.

3. Virginia Tech

Defense and special teams lead the way, and the ACC is a very winnable conference this year. If Sean Glennon can keep mistakes to a minimum, (and this team can actually beat Free Shoes University, errr, Florida State) they win the ACC.

2. West Virginia

As much as I want to put them at the top, the durability of Noel Devine worries me, as does the durability of Pat White. Again, another case of an easy schedule that could lead a team to the promised land.

1. USC

The Trojans look to be the class of the league this year, as long as Mark Sanchez can stay healthy (I notice a pattern here). This team is loaded, and don’t think that Pete Carroll won’t remind them of the awful (by Trojan standards) year they had last year.

I think LSU’s qb issues will haunt them, and I also believe that Fresno St will make some noise this year (and will also win the WAC).