Troy Brown will not be wearing a Patriots shirt anymore… at least as a player.
The 37 year-old wide receiver retired from the NFL yesterday after a press conference at Gillette Stadium where team owner Robert Kraft and Coach Bill Belichick were present also.
Brown played a single game last year and remained unsigned this current season. “It’s hard to let go, but I know, at the end of the day, I played this game the way it supposed to be played.” he said.
Troy Brown remained his entire career with the Patriots, the team that drafted him at the 1993 NFL draft, he’s saying good bye to professional football with 3 Super Bowl rings , one invitation to the Pro Bowl and a few team records including Career Receptions Leader with 557, Career Punt Return Yards Leader with 2625 and Single-Season Receptions Leader with 101(on 2001).
The Yankees 3-1 victory over the Blue Jays was a bitter sweet one for New York, as they will not be taking part on this year’s postseason; this is due to the Red Sox 5-4 win over the Indians, which is giving Boston a playoff spot and leaving the Yanks out.
“It’s really devastating, there’s absolutely no excuse for a team with this talent to be going home. It’s hard to believe right now that we’re out. As inconsistent as we were, to have an opportunity this late in the season just makes it that much more frustrating.” A-Rod said.
The Yankees are missing the postseason in despite of having winning their last 9 of 10, but their record on a total of 162 games is 86-71, nothing compared to the Red Sox 92-65 record.
This is the first time since 1993 that the Yankees are not part of the playoffs.
I guess that is like asking what your favorite team is, but the difference is that on NFL your team of choice has to play different rivals from different divisions, one more tougher than the other.
And so I would say that I have two favorites on both conferences, one is the AFC East and the other one is the NFC East.
AFC East… why: Well because this year this division is more interesting that ever with the Patriots being an underdog and a team like the Bills coming with great chances of winning the division, plus we got the increased rivalry between the Dolphins and the Jets, with Chad Pennington proving that he’s a qualified quarterback and Brett Favre proving that even being an old man, he still has a lot of football on him.
Divisional winner prediction: Bills
NFC East… why: On this division we got the Giants, whom came up with a Superbowl victory against the previously undefeated Patriots, and the Cowboys, whom are favorites to win the conference, but there are also the Eagles, a team that has a long rivalry with Dallas, and whom looked great on their game against the Cowboys on week 2 in despite of loosing.
There is no question about it: Buffalo is in one of the most competitive divisions at the NFL. And with Tom Brady injured and Brett Favre merely adjusted to the Jets playbook, something odd happen this year: the Bills are to be taken seriously to win AFC East.
Now let’s talk about Trent Edwards, the 24 year-old and 92 overall pick at the 2007 NFL draft: he is the future of the Bills, and the one who will probably guide them to something more than just a good record.Edwards was 24 for 39 and 279 yards on the Bills 24-23 win over the Raiders on Sunday, and even the St. Louis press are favoring Buffalo on their coming game against the Rams: “they absolutely have no chance of beating Trent Edwards and the Buffalo Bills”. Journalist John Elway said.
The Bills are currently leading the AFC East at 3-0, while the Pats are second at 2-1, the Jets third at 1-1 and the Dolphins last at 1-2.
The Chargers are forced to a victory against the Jets on this coming Monday Night Football date since they are 0-2 with losses against the Panthers and the Broncos, while the Jets, whom are 1-1 with a loss against a Brady-less Patriots, are hoping that Brett Favre has a better knowledge of New York’s playbook in order to beat a team that is still expected to be a superbowl contender in despite of their unlucky season start.
“This group is the best group that we’ve faced so far, they all have different skill sets and they all do their jobs very well.” Jets safety Kerry Rhodes said.
And he’s right, with an offensive line made of players like Antonio Gates, LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles, the Chargers are the best team (technically speaking) at the AFC West.
By the way, Tomlinson suffered a toe injury in San Diego’s loss against the Broncos, which might leave him out. And so Darren Sproles will get the call to replace him at the running back position.
Pick for this game? Even though I think the Chargers will win this game, I take the Jets +8 since it looks like a closed game, just like Eagles-Cowboys match on week 2.
The Lakers are entering this 2008/09 season with different expectations than last year. Let’s just go back to October 07’ when Kobe Bryant was looking to get traded and the whole team was the opposite of a unit.
Back then, NBA critics’ predictions were giving the Lakers only the chance of entering the playoffs as a 7th seed, but instead they grabbed the conference’s top seed and went to the finals where they finished closely to winning the NBA championship against the Celtics.
Last season, the Lakers suffered the loss of Andrew Bynum for a serious injury, but such injury is what triggered the possibility of the imminent Pau Gasol trade, which, along Kobe’s change of attitude towards a more group-oriented one, made LA a stronger, more compact team, but Bynum is back for this coming season, and the possible starting line-up for the Lakers might be: Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.
The Lakers roster is not that different than last season’s. The Lakers major loss of is Ronny Turiaf, a man who injected a great deal of energy to the team, his talent and enthusiasm is now with the Golden State Warriors.
This season’s finals might repeat with Lakers and Celtics, that is if the Spurs don’t get on the way.
After a long battle with the city of Seattle, new team owner Clay Bennett is finally seeing the results of his struggle for moving the now-defunct Sonics to Oklahoma City, and so the Thunder was born.
The team has sold out season tickets in just the first five days into the purchasing period. And with over 13,000 season packages sold, the renewal of the team seems to be a smart move.
From now on, Oklahoma City fans will have the chance to enjoy professional basketball at FordCenter, an arena who also served as the temporary home for the New Orleans Hornets during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.
Now, it’s time for Kevin Durant to show that he can lead the new franchise to a good record this coming NBA season.
The Sonics finished with a league-low 20 victories, so new town, new name, new fans, all have to lead to a better future for the Thunder.
Now, this is a surprise, the Favre-fueled Jets loosing against a Brady-less Patriots? That had to be seeing to be believed, and it was…
Can this be an indication that Matt Cassel is on his route to success as Tom Brady did under the same circumstances in 2001? Well, it’s just Cassel’s first game as starter at the NFL and he surely shadowed Brett Favre’s 277th consecutive start.
For the most part, this was the best chance the Jets had of cleaning their name against the Patriots, whom have won 13 of their last 15 meetings, “We let that game slip away, and that was something that we shouldn’t have done, we needed to win that game, the division and all that. We let one get away that we had a great chance to win.” said defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, one of the off-season additions for the Jets.
One thing to notice about Matt Cassel is that he didn’t threw a direct touchdown but he didn’t threw for an interception either, and so at the end of the game he went 16 of 23 for 165 yards, not bad at all.
Final score was 19-10, and let’s face it, if Tom Brady had started yesterday, the Pats would have won by 30 or more, which indicates the series of flaws that the Jets still need to work on in order to have a chance to the NFL playoffs.
The game of the week at the NCAA is set to be played tomorrow by the Buckeyes and the Trojans, with USC having a winning record over Ohio State which is now an 11-point underdog against South Calsince their first meeting 18 years ago.
Statistically OhioStatehas the better defense in college football nation wide, but that seat was reserved for the Trojans last year, so this game is promising to be a true clash of forces battling to find weak spots.
One low point for the Buckeyes is that their starting tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells is probably not going to play tomorrow as he injured his foot at Ohio State’s opening game against Youngstown State.
“Doubtful doesn’t mean he’s not playing, we’re still going to prepare like everybody’s playing. We’re just going about our business.” Said USC coach Pete Carroll.
Currently the Buckeyes are ranked at fifth and the Trojans are number 1.
The question is: why the Patriots don’t have a competent quarterback? I guess they thought Tom Brady was some sort of semi-god that couldn’t get injured? Well, they know better now.
So for the moment they are relying on a quarterback who was a 7th round pick and who wasn’t considered good enough to be a starter when playing college football at USC.
Now, not only the Patriots have been shaken by the loss of Brady, the sportsbooks industry has also suffered the consequences of an unexpected turn for New England, as they were favoring the Pats 4/1 to win the Superbowl in 2009, now those numbers have changed to 14/1.
The other two teams that were favored by sportsbooksbetting lines to win the NFLchampionship game lost their respective Week 1 matches, as the Colts fell to the the Bears and the Chargers fell to the Panthers, which is leaving the Cowboys in a very good position as they won their first game against the Browns with an impressive 28-10.
And with the outstanding victory of the Bills against the Seahawks, critics are considering Buffalo an unexpected candidate to win the AFC East, though things are still unclear on who can be considered the best team on such division.
