COACHES ON THE MOVE, SOME OF THESE GUYS HAVE NO CLUE & COULD DEZ BE TRADED?
Linda & I had a very strange happening this evening. After dollar taco night at the Rocky Top Bar & Grill, we went to the movies to see "True Grit" since we're expecting another dump of snow starting tomorrow & it might be our last outing for a while. As many of you know, we live in the middle of nowhere, but one of the only two movie theaters out here in the middle of nowhere, is a mile from our house. So we go in, buy our tickets, starting to get the senior rate even if we might not qualify, they just look at us & say "thirteen-fifty," sort of depressing. Anyway, we go into the largest of the five theaters in this cineplex & park it. Not long after the previews start, we realize we are the only people in the theater. When we arrived, we noticed we were the only car in the parking lot & "True Grit" was the last of five movies to start. When we left, ours was still the only car in the lot, we had been their only movie goers all night. I know there's a crappy economy, I know it's really cold outside, I know it's a weeknight, but c'mon. This place was showing all first run movies too. Wow, that is scary. Loved "True Grit", love just about every Coen Bros. movie we've ever seen. Onto the football news.
There was a lot of movement on the coaching front, I'm only going to tell you the highlights, there were almost twenty of them overall.
The Oakland Raiders promoted offensive coordinator Hue Jackson to head coach. Owner Al Davis made the announcement at a press conference & honestly, Davis could be on that AMC show "The Walking Dead", wouldn't even need makeup. Man he looks bad. Anyway, after chatting up Jackson for ten minutes, he went a little off the rails once again. He began trashing former coach Tom Cable. He said Cable had improper interaction with an administrative assistant in the Raider front office. He also said there was still a question about Cable breaking the jaw of an assistant coach. This is the second ex-coach Davis has gone out of his way to trash publicly. Cable has filed a grievance against the Raiders for $120,000 in back pay, Davis has already stated the money was withheld as a fine for his transgressions. Apparently Cable doesn't see it that way. Davis has a history of shorting paychecks for coaches he doesn't like, Mike Shanahan, Lane Kiffin & now, Tom Cable.
But Cable already has a new job, the Seattle Seahawks hired him today to be their offensive line coach. Good hire for the 'Hawks.
Mike Singletary landed in Minnesota & was introduced as the linebacker coach & assistant head coach. He & head coach Leslie Frazier were Bear teammates back in the 80's.
Josh McDaniels, Todd Haley's old buddy & former Bronco coach, will become the new offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams. This should be good news for Sam Bradford, the other alternative was 70-year old Dick Curl, formerly Chiefs' QB coach & not a good one as I recall.
Baltimore defensive coordinator Greg Mattison has flown the coop. He left of his own accord in sort of a Charlie Weis move, he went back to college. Mattison will become D.C. at Michigan for new coach Brady Hoke. He just might have had a little falling out with John Harbaugh after the game-changing 3rd & 19, 58-yard completion by Pittsburgh. Raven secondary coach Chuck Pagano will be promoted to fill the vacancy.
Speaking of Michigan, the recently fired Rich Rodriguez did a nice thing. He took every piece of Michigan clothing & memorabilia in his possession to the Salvation Army & told them to auction it off & use the funds however they wanted. The auction netted over $16,000 for the charity. Class move by RichRod.
As I scour the internet, looking for tidbits you might find interesting, I'm constantly amazed at some of the crap guys being paid post as real knowledge. ESPN.com's David Uben, their Big-12 blogger, wrote a piece on Tuesday naming the top-5 Big-12 games of the season & then went further with 5 additional games as "honorable mention." He failed to mention Mizzou's upset over #1 Oklahoma. It was the only time a Big-12 team upset the nation's #1 team during the 2010 season. Somehow that didn't qualify. In another post he ran down the Big-12 players who've chosen to enter the NFL Draft early, forgoing the remainder of their college eligibility. in his piece he mentioned the Big-12 probably wouldn't have as many first round draft picks as last season, which I have no argument with since 5 of the first 6 players chosen were from the Big-12. Tough to duplicate. But he went onto say Blaine Gabbert was the only Big-12 underclassman who would go in the first round. Wrong, Aldon Smith will also go in round one, I can guarantee after he wows 'em at the combine next month, he'll zoom up the draft boards all over the league. He'll be in most everyone's 1st round mock draft. You know what I don't get about this Uben guy? Before working for ESPN.com, he covered the Big-12 for The Columbia MIssourian. I respect a guy who isn't a homer, but in both of these instances, he was wrong, he clearly missed the mark. SI.com's Stewart Mandel, normally a very respected writer who I hold in high esteem, got it wrong the other day when he was listing the teams that were hurt the most by early departures. He failed to list Mizzou in his top-5 list. Two high 1st round draft prospects, the Tigers' best offensive player & best defensive player wasn't enough to make his list. Auburn, sure I can see that, Virginia Tech, maybe but the other three, Pitt, Illinois & UCLA(a 4 & freakin' 8 team???) was over the line. Three unranked teams are on his list while he omits Mizzou? Unbelievable.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have decided 8-straight blackouts is enough. The team announced a reduction in ticket prices for the 2011 season. According to CEO Joel Glazer, "tens of thousands" of seats will be reduced up to 20%. He said they would offer adult tickets starting at $30 & kid's seats at $17.50. Honestly, that's more than fair, I hope they sell every seat to every game. The Bucs are certainly one of the leagues ascending franchises.
Former Cowboy's wide receiver Patrick Crayton, no longer constrained by Cowboy management, said a strange thing on Tuesday. He said the Cowboys were willing to listen to offers for Dez Bryant. He said Bryant got away with murder last season & Jason Garrett & receivers coach Ray Sherman did nothing to reign in the talented rookie. He was late for meetings, practices & road trips. He clowned around too much & his antics
wore very thin with teammates. Garrett was promoted to head coach & after Sherman was also interviewed for the position to satisfy the league's Rooney Rule, he was canned. Maybe Bryant's lack of discipline was pinned on Sherman, but Crayton, now with San Diego, said he thought the trade rumors were spread intentionally to scare Dez straight. Bryant has a terrible reputation for punctuality, maybe the Cowboys have had their fill.
There was a lot of movement on the coaching front, I'm only going to tell you the highlights, there were almost twenty of them overall.
The Oakland Raiders promoted offensive coordinator Hue Jackson to head coach. Owner Al Davis made the announcement at a press conference & honestly, Davis could be on that AMC show "The Walking Dead", wouldn't even need makeup. Man he looks bad. Anyway, after chatting up Jackson for ten minutes, he went a little off the rails once again. He began trashing former coach Tom Cable. He said Cable had improper interaction with an administrative assistant in the Raider front office. He also said there was still a question about Cable breaking the jaw of an assistant coach. This is the second ex-coach Davis has gone out of his way to trash publicly. Cable has filed a grievance against the Raiders for $120,000 in back pay, Davis has already stated the money was withheld as a fine for his transgressions. Apparently Cable doesn't see it that way. Davis has a history of shorting paychecks for coaches he doesn't like, Mike Shanahan, Lane Kiffin & now, Tom Cable.
But Cable already has a new job, the Seattle Seahawks hired him today to be their offensive line coach. Good hire for the 'Hawks.
Mike Singletary landed in Minnesota & was introduced as the linebacker coach & assistant head coach. He & head coach Leslie Frazier were Bear teammates back in the 80's.
Josh McDaniels, Todd Haley's old buddy & former Bronco coach, will become the new offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams. This should be good news for Sam Bradford, the other alternative was 70-year old Dick Curl, formerly Chiefs' QB coach & not a good one as I recall.
Baltimore defensive coordinator Greg Mattison has flown the coop. He left of his own accord in sort of a Charlie Weis move, he went back to college. Mattison will become D.C. at Michigan for new coach Brady Hoke. He just might have had a little falling out with John Harbaugh after the game-changing 3rd & 19, 58-yard completion by Pittsburgh. Raven secondary coach Chuck Pagano will be promoted to fill the vacancy.
Speaking of Michigan, the recently fired Rich Rodriguez did a nice thing. He took every piece of Michigan clothing & memorabilia in his possession to the Salvation Army & told them to auction it off & use the funds however they wanted. The auction netted over $16,000 for the charity. Class move by RichRod.
As I scour the internet, looking for tidbits you might find interesting, I'm constantly amazed at some of the crap guys being paid post as real knowledge. ESPN.com's David Uben, their Big-12 blogger, wrote a piece on Tuesday naming the top-5 Big-12 games of the season & then went further with 5 additional games as "honorable mention." He failed to mention Mizzou's upset over #1 Oklahoma. It was the only time a Big-12 team upset the nation's #1 team during the 2010 season. Somehow that didn't qualify. In another post he ran down the Big-12 players who've chosen to enter the NFL Draft early, forgoing the remainder of their college eligibility. in his piece he mentioned the Big-12 probably wouldn't have as many first round draft picks as last season, which I have no argument with since 5 of the first 6 players chosen were from the Big-12. Tough to duplicate. But he went onto say Blaine Gabbert was the only Big-12 underclassman who would go in the first round. Wrong, Aldon Smith will also go in round one, I can guarantee after he wows 'em at the combine next month, he'll zoom up the draft boards all over the league. He'll be in most everyone's 1st round mock draft. You know what I don't get about this Uben guy? Before working for ESPN.com, he covered the Big-12 for The Columbia MIssourian. I respect a guy who isn't a homer, but in both of these instances, he was wrong, he clearly missed the mark. SI.com's Stewart Mandel, normally a very respected writer who I hold in high esteem, got it wrong the other day when he was listing the teams that were hurt the most by early departures. He failed to list Mizzou in his top-5 list. Two high 1st round draft prospects, the Tigers' best offensive player & best defensive player wasn't enough to make his list. Auburn, sure I can see that, Virginia Tech, maybe but the other three, Pitt, Illinois & UCLA(a 4 & freakin' 8 team???) was over the line. Three unranked teams are on his list while he omits Mizzou? Unbelievable.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have decided 8-straight blackouts is enough. The team announced a reduction in ticket prices for the 2011 season. According to CEO Joel Glazer, "tens of thousands" of seats will be reduced up to 20%. He said they would offer adult tickets starting at $30 & kid's seats at $17.50. Honestly, that's more than fair, I hope they sell every seat to every game. The Bucs are certainly one of the leagues ascending franchises.
Former Cowboy's wide receiver Patrick Crayton, no longer constrained by Cowboy management, said a strange thing on Tuesday. He said the Cowboys were willing to listen to offers for Dez Bryant. He said Bryant got away with murder last season & Jason Garrett & receivers coach Ray Sherman did nothing to reign in the talented rookie. He was late for meetings, practices & road trips. He clowned around too much & his antics
wore very thin with teammates. Garrett was promoted to head coach & after Sherman was also interviewed for the position to satisfy the league's Rooney Rule, he was canned. Maybe Bryant's lack of discipline was pinned on Sherman, but Crayton, now with San Diego, said he thought the trade rumors were spread intentionally to scare Dez straight. Bryant has a terrible reputation for punctuality, maybe the Cowboys have had their fill.
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