Sports Then and Now

Drew Brees celebrates with teammate, Devery Henderson after he threw a record-breaking touchdown pass on Sunday. Bress now has a TD pass in 48 straight games – breaking the record set by Johnny Unitas.

As always, it was another exciting week in the NFL with records being broken, upsets being recorded and Tim Tebow leading the Jets to a win. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

Nevertheless, it was still another very exciting week in football that made us fans all grateful that we get to watch the game every week – and that the replacement referees are gone for good.

Now’s the part when I reminisce about both the good and the bad that the games had to offer.

First and foremost, Saints quarterback, Drew Brees threw a touchdown pass in his 48th straight game – a new NFL record. The previous record was 47 held by Johnny Unitas. The record-breaking pass was one of four for him on the night and came in the 1st quarter to Devery Henderson from 40 yards out. More importantly, the Saints picked up their first win of the season, 31-24 over the Chargers.

Five teams did not allow a touchdown in their Week 5 games. It’s not surprising that three of them were the Ravens, 49ers and Bears. It is surprising, however, that the other two were the Rams and the Chiefs. The Chiefs were the only team to not allow a touchdown and lose the game. The Ravens beat them, without scoring a touchdown, 9-6.

Two teams – the Bears and the 49ers won by more than 38 points. The 49ers beat the Bills 45-3 and the Bears crushed the Jaguars 41-3.

The Cardinals suffered their first loss of the year, falling to the Rams 17-3 on Thursday night.

San Francisco set a franchise record with 621 yards of total offense in their win against Buffalo. It was also the most yards that the Bills have ever given up. Alex Smith threw for 303 yards and three TD’s. The Bills also became the first team to allow 550+ yards of offense in consecutive weeks since 1950.

The Bears recorded an interception return in their third straight game for the first time in their history. Charles Tillman returned a Blaine Gabbert pick 36 yards in the 2nd quarter to make the score 13-3 Bears.

The Patriots scored 3+ rushing touchdowns in consecutive games for the first time since 1978. Touchdowns were scored by Shane Vereen, Stevan Ridley and Tom Brady. Brady also threw a touchdown pass in his 38th straight game – remaining ten behind Brees for the all-time record.

Green Bay blew an 18-point halftime lead to the Colts and lost the game 30-27. Andrew Luck threw two touchdowns and Reggie Wayne had 212 yards receiving as the Pack blew their largest halftime lead since 1957.

In case you were wondering, the Browns are still winless. They fell to 0-6 after blowing a 14-0 lead against the Super Bowl Champion Giants. Dating back to last season, Cleveland has now lost 11 straight which is tied for the longest losing streak in its franchise history. On the bright side, rookie running back, Trent Richardson, recorded  a rushing touchdown in his fourth straight game.

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“Hey Jets! I am AVAILABLE!”

Terrell Owens is UNEMPLOYED.

Terrell Owens is BROKE.

Terrell Owens is DESPERATE.

During the Monday Night football game between the Texans and Jets, T.O. tweeted the following:

Hey JETS!!! I’m available! I’m ready, willing & able! Call my agent @jordanwoy & let’s make it happen.

— Terrell Owens (@terrellowens) October 9, 2012

The Jets are definitely in need of wide receiver help after Santonio Holmes was lost for the season after an injury against the 49ers.

But how much is Terrell Owens an UPGRADE? He is 38 years old and has not played in the NFL since 2010 with the Cincinnati Bengals where he had 72 catches for 938 yards and 9 touchdowns.

He was cut in training camp by the Seattle Seahawks back in August.

Have to give credit to Terrell Owens for thinking outside the box using social media to find a new gig.

K.C. Chiefs Lineman Eric Winston deserves EVERYONE’s RESPECT after his post-game RANT. He called out 70,000 Chiefs fans for cheering, yes CHEERING when his quarterback Matt Cassel was knocked out of the game due to a concussion.

Wow, this is just SHAMEFUL and Eric Winston is RIGHT. These players are PEOPLE like you and me.

They BLEED like us.

They get HURT like us.

And they have FEELINGS and EMOTIONS like us.

Sports sometimes rips the HUMANITY out of people and just as Winston said brings us back to the days of the Romans cheering as the Christians getting thrown to the lions.

Hats off and much RESPECT goes to Eric Winston, I just became his BIGGEST fan because of his BRAVERY to speak out and DEDICATION to his teammates/brothers.

H/T Goes To The Sports Grid!

Browns Fans Had Their Football Hearts Torn Out

Never has a professional sports team announced they were moving DURING a season. No owner has ripped the hearts out of his franchise’s fans, players and coaching staff like Art Modell did in Cleveland during the ’95 season. In essence, the ’95 Cleveland Browns became a “DEAD Team Playing”.

Bill Belichick came to Cleveland in 1991 fresh off a Super Bowl victory with the New York Giants. He came to the Browns to bring respectability back to the once proud franchise that could never get over the hump. He instilled a system and assembled a staff (which included 3 future GM’s, 2 successful college coaches and one NFL coach) that would lead the Browns to their first Super Bowl.

Belichick took a team from a 3-13 season to a 6-10 record in his first year at the helm. In 1992 & 1993, the Browns posted back to back 7-9 campaigns and were showing progress. However, progress was not without pain and scrutiny.

Bill Belichick made a controversial and risky decision by benching Cleveland icon Bernie Kosar early in the ’93 season in favor of Vinny Testaverde. A mere eight weeks later, Kosar was released due to his “diminished skills” as described by Belichick. Browns fans were enraged by Kosar’s dismissal as they wore Bernie Kosar masks to the following home game.

The head coach survived the fire and brimstone to lead the Browns to the playoffs in 1994 after posting a 11-5 record. Belichick would face his mentor, Bill Parcells and the New England Patriots in the playoffs. Cleveland won the wild card match-up 20-13 before falling to their hated rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-9 in the divisional round.

Hope was breeding eternal in the “Dawg Pound” as their Browns were back to respectability. NFL pundits such as the Sporting News and Sports Illustrated were picking the Browns to go to the Super Bowl in 1995.  And the team was believing in the hype as they started the season 3-1.

Cleveland was riding high….

Then IT happened…………..

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The addition of Brandon Jacobs gives the San Francisco 49ers multiple options at running back.

Every day in the NFL players are playing for their careers and almost interviewing for their jobs, they don’t only have to worry about the opposition as much as competition from within their own team.

All the various positions have battles over them each year and they tend to pop up across the league during every off-season; some with little furor, and others which make back page headlines on a daily basis. These fights for the starting or backup jobs lend some intrigue to an otherwise dull part of the NFL calendar year.

With that thought in mind where do we think that some of these internal clashes will be happening this year? The first to come under the microscope is in San Francisco who staged one of the more remarkable turnarounds last year, much of their success due to their defense.

However, they have managed to keep all of their offensive starters from last year and have through free-agency been able to boost their offense, prompting a flurry of online bets and interest.

But with the boost comes conflict and the 49ers added to that attrition by using their second round draft pick to select Oregon running back LaMichael James adding to a very crowded backfield that already contains Brandon Jacobs, Kendall Hunter, Anthony Dixon and the incumbent Frank Gore.

It should go without saying that the starting job belongs to Gore, but that leaves four running backs to battle for what essentially amounts to two spots and that could well create some sparks over the summer in San Francisco.

There are likely to be plenty of QB head-to-head battles over the summer.

Unless you have an elite QB you need to have plenty of depth but that can cause its own problems and we can see some fun-and-games coming in Arizona where the Cardinals have spent a lot of money on Kevin Kolb.

Kolb then got injured and his replacement John Skelton, who played well down the stretch.

Kolb’s contract is expensive, and his first season was marred by injuries and the NFL lockout. He probably deserves another chance but this could be a close run thing.

In Chicago the Bears are collecting wide receivers like stamps and they will have an interesting summer deciding what to do with them all.

It goes without saying that Brandon Marshall owns the number one spot, and with Earl Bennett having been given a long contract extension it probably leaves one spot to be decided, with Devin Hester, free agent Eric Weems and rookie Alshon Jeffrey all in the running.

That gives the Bears an embarrassment of riches at wide receiver but at least one man will be happy, and that’s Chicago QB Jay Cutler, who must be excited by having that much ammunition.

Many more of these situations of attrition will occur throughout the off-season and should give us plenty to write and talk about – and will undoubtedly lead to many NFL bets being placed – before we start the real action later in the year.

The New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers have played some memorable playoff games over the last 30 years.

When the San Francisco 49ers and New York Giants meet for the NFC Championship on Sunday it will mark the eighth time the two squads have met in the playoffs and second time with the Super Bowl on the line.

Given that these two squads have a combined total of eight Lombardi Trophies, it is hard to believe that when they first met in the playoffs thirty years ago, neither team had ever made a Super Bowl appearance.

In the first playoff game of the Joe Montana and Bill Walsh era, the 49ers jumped out to a 24-10 halftime lead and went on to register a 38-24 victory. They would go on to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.

That game proved to be the first of five playoff meetings over the next decade.

The 49ers claimed the second matchup three years later with a 21-10 victory on their way to their second Super Bowl title.

However, the tide would soon turn as the Giants won 17-3 in 1985 and then in 1986 completely demolished the 49ers 44-3 on their way to their first Super Bowl title.

The two teams would not meet again in the playoffs until the 1990 season and for the first time they were playing in the NFC title game.

San Francisco was shooting for a third straight Super Bowl title, but in what would prove to be his final playoff start as a member of the 49ers, Joe Montana suffered a huge hit from defensive end Leonard Marshall that knocked him out of the game for nearly two years.

The 49ers led the game 13-6 in the second half, but three Matt Bahr field goals, including the game winner following a Roger Craig fumble, allowed the Giants to steal a 15-13 victory and end the dreams of a third straight Super Bowl for the 49ers.

New York went on to defeat the Buffalo Bills 20-19 to win their second Super Bowl under head coach Bill Parcells. Read the rest of this entry →