GREAT OPENERS, ANOTHER VOL FALL & THE BAD BOY REPORT
NFL preseason football is just a temporary fix for the football junkie, the real excitement begins September 3rd with a college double header on ESPN. The Thursday night slate begins with South Carolina at North Carolina State, an O.K. matchup, but the nightcap of Oregon at Boise Sate should be a beauty. The Broncos went into Autzen Stadium last season & knocked off the Ducks on their home field, 37-32. Boise seldom gets to play a prime time TV game on the blue field of Bronco Stadium. Two days later on Saturday, the Georgia Bulldogs travel to Stillwater Oklahoma to play an OSU team stacked with offensive stars. Also on Saturday Alabama plays at Virginia Tech & playing in Lane Stadium, the Hokies are 18-2 the last three seasons. Another mega-matchup early on the non-conference schedule is September 12th, when USC will face off with the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus. It all begins in six short weeks.
Training camp hasn't even opened yet & the Tennessee Vols have lost another wide receiver. Last week, starter Austin Rogers tore his ACL during a captain's practice & yesterday, Denarius Moore, counted on as a starter, went down with a broken foot. Moore had surgery today & he's projected to be out 8-10 weeks. Time he needed to work in Lane Kiffin's new offense. These injuries are a major setback in Kiffin's debut season.
Chad Ochocinco, Bengal wide receiver & part-time pain in the ass, said 10 days ago he intended to send live 'Tweets' on Twitter from the bench during games. The NFL hastily put out a "No way are you going to 'Tweet' during games" policy, but Chad's unimpressed. Because, as I've said so many times right here on this blog, it's not about the team or the fans, it's all about me, me, me. "There's a lot of things they don't want me to do, but I do them anyway & they know that. I don't know why they even fussing about it. When I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it, regardless of what they say." When Chad concentrates on football, he's one of the top 5 receivers in the entire league. But when he starts the 'me, me, me thing', he becomes a major distraction to himself & his teammates.
Another knucklehead wide receiver, Matt Jones, formerly of the Jaguars, is looking for a team willing to forgive & forget. Jones was suspended for cocaine & after he was reinstated with strict guidelines for personal behavior, he repaid Jag management & players for their support with another suspension for public drunkenness. Matt should let his agent, Dave Butz, do his bidding, because when he speaks, he doesn't do himself any favors. "Cocaine is something I hadn't really done in the past, so it's not like I have a drug problem. It was something where I was with some of my buddies, it was a mistake." Mistake doing the coke or mistake getting caught? "Then I got some bad advice from some people who were close to me that were like 'Hey you can have a few beers', so that wasn't good either. But there were a lot of different rules from the drug court that I was looking at going thru, I just didn't see the drinking part." Didn't see it or didn't want to see it? More bad news for Jones is that, as one general manager said, "Once nobody trusts you, it's hard to get back into the league. Another thing about Matt is he's got a rep of being a lazy guy". This opinion of Jones is widespread. A 26-year old with great size & tremendous speed, but about zero self control. He may get another chance depending on who gets injured in the preseason. More bad decisions that affect so many people.
And one of the poster boys for stupid decision making, Travis Henry, the multi-1,000 yard runner for Buffalo, Tennessee & Denver, has gotten his just reward. Henry was sentenced in a federal court in Montana to three years for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. His football career is over. I hope the judge will deny conjugal visits to Henry, he has 11 children with 10 different women. Needless to say, none of these women will be receiving their often late child support payments for the next 3 years. Real solid citizen huh?
Training camp hasn't even opened yet & the Tennessee Vols have lost another wide receiver. Last week, starter Austin Rogers tore his ACL during a captain's practice & yesterday, Denarius Moore, counted on as a starter, went down with a broken foot. Moore had surgery today & he's projected to be out 8-10 weeks. Time he needed to work in Lane Kiffin's new offense. These injuries are a major setback in Kiffin's debut season.
Chad Ochocinco, Bengal wide receiver & part-time pain in the ass, said 10 days ago he intended to send live 'Tweets' on Twitter from the bench during games. The NFL hastily put out a "No way are you going to 'Tweet' during games" policy, but Chad's unimpressed. Because, as I've said so many times right here on this blog, it's not about the team or the fans, it's all about me, me, me. "There's a lot of things they don't want me to do, but I do them anyway & they know that. I don't know why they even fussing about it. When I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it, regardless of what they say." When Chad concentrates on football, he's one of the top 5 receivers in the entire league. But when he starts the 'me, me, me thing', he becomes a major distraction to himself & his teammates.
Another knucklehead wide receiver, Matt Jones, formerly of the Jaguars, is looking for a team willing to forgive & forget. Jones was suspended for cocaine & after he was reinstated with strict guidelines for personal behavior, he repaid Jag management & players for their support with another suspension for public drunkenness. Matt should let his agent, Dave Butz, do his bidding, because when he speaks, he doesn't do himself any favors. "Cocaine is something I hadn't really done in the past, so it's not like I have a drug problem. It was something where I was with some of my buddies, it was a mistake." Mistake doing the coke or mistake getting caught? "Then I got some bad advice from some people who were close to me that were like 'Hey you can have a few beers', so that wasn't good either. But there were a lot of different rules from the drug court that I was looking at going thru, I just didn't see the drinking part." Didn't see it or didn't want to see it? More bad news for Jones is that, as one general manager said, "Once nobody trusts you, it's hard to get back into the league. Another thing about Matt is he's got a rep of being a lazy guy". This opinion of Jones is widespread. A 26-year old with great size & tremendous speed, but about zero self control. He may get another chance depending on who gets injured in the preseason. More bad decisions that affect so many people.
And one of the poster boys for stupid decision making, Travis Henry, the multi-1,000 yard runner for Buffalo, Tennessee & Denver, has gotten his just reward. Henry was sentenced in a federal court in Montana to three years for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. His football career is over. I hope the judge will deny conjugal visits to Henry, he has 11 children with 10 different women. Needless to say, none of these women will be receiving their often late child support payments for the next 3 years. Real solid citizen huh?
Comments