Sports Then and Now

Only the uniform looks different when Peyton Manning is in the pocket.

After the NFL appetizer on Wednesday night, it will be time for the full feast Sunday as the NFL begins a five month run dominating television sets, computers and minds across the nation.

Below are five predictions for what we can expect to see during the 2012 NFL season:

NEW UNIFORM, SAME RESULTS

It seems strange looking at Peyton Manning in an orange and blue uniform with a horse head on the helmet rather than his familiar blue and white with the horseshow. However, once you overcome the initial shock, watching Manning play in the preseason seemed relatively familiar as his mannerisms and passing style were no different from the old days.

Reading predictions for what Manning will accomplish in 2012 has been quite interesting. Some, including Sports Illustrated guru Peter King, have predicted that Manning will quickly regain his previous form and lead the Broncos to the Super Bowl.

Others, including Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports, have suggested that Manning has always been given more credit than he deserves and that he will be good, but not spectacular during his return to the NFL. Whitlock goes as far as saying that Manning is one of the 10 to 15 best quarterbacks of all-time, but not deserving of being considered among the top five, which is where most experts rank him.

I expect that what we will see from Manning in 2012 will be somewhere in between. I do not think Manning will be the NFL MVP or make it to the Super Bowl, but I do think he will have a “Manningesque” season with statistics and a team victory total that remind everyone of how great he has been for the last decade. Read the rest of this entry →

Otto Graham

As we begin another football season, we recognize as the September Sports Then and Now Athlete of the Month an all-time great whose first sport wasn’t football, but after he found his calling excelled both as a collegiate player and as one of the greatest winners in pro football history.

Otto Graham didn’t actually come to Northwestern University to play football. He originally came to Northwestern on a basketball scholarship. It was only after Northwestern football coach Pappy Waldorf saw Graham playing freshman intramural football that he was invited to tryout for the football team.

Graham ended up playing three seasons for Northwestern and broke every existing Big Ten passing record during his career. He was a two-time All-America selection and won the Big Ten MVP Award. Read the rest of this entry →

Steve Van Buren led the Philadelphia Eagles to back-to-back NFL titles.

Sorry to hear of the passing of one of the greatest football players of his generation, former Philadelphia Eagles great Steve Van Buren, at the age of 91.

The first Eagles player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Van Buren was was a four-time NFL rushing champion and led his team to consecutive NFL Championships.

After leading the nation in points and touchdowns as a senior at LSU, he was drafted in the first round of the 1944 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles and over the next eight seasons would become the transcendent rusher of his era .

As a rookie for the Eagles, Van Buren showed glimpses of his future brilliance by rushing for 444 yards in nine games and leading the league with an average of 5.6 yards per carry. He also returned both a kickoff and punt for a touchdown and earned All-Pro honors as a defensive player with five interceptions.

The following season, Van Buren led the NFL in rushing with 832 yards on the ground in 10 games. He scored 18 total touchdowns and led the NFL in scoring with 110 points.

In 1947 he led the Eagles to a spot in the NFL Championship game while eclipsing the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the first time with an NFL best 1,008 yards, 13 rushing touchdowns and 1,087 yards from scrimmage. After defeating Pittsburgh in the opening round of the playoffs, the Eagles lost to the Chicago Cardinals 28-21 in the NFL title game as Van Buren was limited to 26 yards on the ground while scoring a touchdown in the loss.

The following season, Van Buren gained 945 yards rushing to again top the league. The Eagles again faced Chicago in the NFL Championship Game and this time despite a major snowstorm, Van Buren rushed for 98 yards and scored the only touchdown of the game as the Eagles won 7-0 to claim their first NFL Championship. Read the rest of this entry →

Unless a settlement happens in the next two weeks, the NFL could start the 2012 with inexperienced officials.

The new NFL regular season looks set to get under-way with replacement officials, following a controversial decision by league executives.

It is a move that is likely to cause great disputation amongst both players and coaches, with the replacements having already attracted criticism.

Amongst the main reasons for the difference in opinion amongst NFL Betting Picks experts is the fact that many of the replacement officials will go into the season without the same level of collegiate experience that the senior officials have.

Quite why there is a need for replacements remains a mystery, although it has been mooted around that economics will be a major factor. Read the rest of this entry →

After signing with the Seattle Seahawks, Terrell Owens will be back in the NFL for the first time since playing for the Bengals in 2010.

The Seattle Seahawks have made the somewhat surprising decision to sign 38-year-old veteran, Terrell Owens, on a one-year deal, handing the wide receiver a return to the NFL after a two year absence.

The six-time Pro Bowl star has been away from the NFL since 2010, when a serious knee injury ended Owens short spell at the Cincinnati Bengals, an incident that made the football news headlines on Bet365.

A season spent playing for the Allen Wranglers in the Indoor Football League saw Owens produce some decent form, making 35 catches for 420 yards and 10 touchdowns in his eight appearances.

Despite his time at the Wranglers coming to a premature end due to behind-the-scenes troubles, the word on the grapevine was that the former San Francisco 49ers star was still a very capable player.

Owens clearly did enough to impress the Seahawks management during his short trial, earning himself a one-year deal with the team after just one training session. Read the rest of this entry →

The statue of Joe Paterno was removed from Beaver Stadium on Sunday morning.

During the recent debate about whether the statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium at Penn State University should be removed, there have been passionate and legitimate arguments on both sides. Now that it has been made and the statue removed, my hope is that the decision represents a real willingness to change the culture of the school, rather than just another decision made to appease outside interests and to save face for a tarnished program.

Had the culture at Penn State been different over the last two decades it would not have changed the fact that Jerry Sandusky is a sick individual. However, if Paterno and other university leaders had been more concerned about doing the right thing and protecting innocent children, rather than protecting Sandusky and the reputations of the university and football program, the number of children whose lives were forever altered would be much smaller.

Since the story first became public in early November, it seems that most of the focus within the national media has been on the impact to Paterno, Penn State and the universities vaunted football program. I think one reason some believe the NCAA should levy harsh penalties against Penn State (which according to reports is going to happen as early as Monday) is that perhaps by punishing the football program it will help the university regain their perspective.

First off, I do not personally think the NCAA has any jurisdiction or legitimate reason to punish the Penn State football program. I do not believe that you can punish a program just because it has been given far greater magnitude to an athletic program than would seem logical. Heck, if you did that, then I think you could very much argue that any university that pays an athletic coach significantly more than the university president and spends more on athletics than on some academic programs could be lumped into that category. Read the rest of this entry →