The Sports Chick Blog

 Tom Brady left today’s New England - Kansas City game in the first quarter with a left knee injury. The Pats recovered and won the game in Foxboro 17 - 10 behind Matt Cassel. But here’s the real story … after getting hit by KC Safety, Bernard Pollard, Brady did little to conceal the fact that he was hurt in his cool california style. In fact, Brady clutched his knee for dear life and screamed like a hell - not something you’d expect from a Belichick soldier.

The Patriots, in their usual fashion, did not divulge in any injury details. However, the New York Jets (my fav and former employeer ) were seen and heard in their Miami locker room (after an unreal win!!!!) saying that Brady has a torn left ACL. Obviously making him unavailable for the week 2 match up between the Pats and Jets, but also making him OUT FOR THE SEASON!

I’m sure when the news is released to the whole world we can all hear the weeps from Foxboro and the jubilation from the NYC metro area … yes I can hear it now, the Jets will win the AFC East!!!!

ps - Prof. Dodds maybe we will see Brett in Tampa, not Miami!

 Unfortunately I left for good ol’ Cortland before I got to work the Jet-Giant preseason game. So I was not their to witness Giants DE Osi Umenyiora grip his knee in the second quarter. Apparently, Osi was carted off the field, but Giants fans had a sigh of relief when it was made public that Osi’s x-rays were negative. Well now G-Men nation can start freaking out because Osi Umenyiora is OUT FOR THE SEASON!

No details are being leaked at all. I have no info about what type of injury it is, but count on surgery being involved. Once I know more it will be posted here.

UPDATE: From ESPN.com,

“Umenyiora was hurt in the second quarter of Saturday’s preseason game against the New York Jets, but early indications were that there was no ligament damage.

However, an MRI Sunday found a torn lateral meniscus, Dr. Russell Warren told the team. The two-time Pro Bowl choice will have surgery Tuesday and be sidelined for the season.” 

photo from the NY Daily News

 Geeks unite! Madden 09 is out!! Now odds are all those Madden geeks are not reading this blog b/c they’re trying to figure out every move, cheat, and code to the game, but I’ll write anyway!

So by no means is my brother a geek, but he like every other football player in America has to own Madden AS SOON AS IT COMES OUT! So when he did get his hands on the game the first thing we did when we got home was push that baby into the XBox and play away.

As he was going through all the 32 NFL teams I noticed that all the Head Coaches are listed: Tony Dungy, Lane Kiffin, Eric Mangini, blah blah blahhh! But when you scroll down to that team with the NE (yes New England) it says,

“NE Coach”

Umm excuse me, but it thought that cheaters are labeled by their names??

Anyway, dig a little deeper into the “NE Coach” and you find out that Billy-Boy’s name isn’t anywhere in Madden (or anyother outside the NFL merch) because he is not part of the NFLHCA (National Football League Head Coaches Association). And Madden has the rights to display player names and coaches names because of the NFLPA and NFLHCA respectively. The only other coach not to be a part of the NFLHCA is the messiah, Bill Parcells, but that is entirely because of his contract with ESPN… So what is Mr. No Sleeves excuse?

ps- I’m obligated not to use the fella’s name b/c of the NFLHCA **wink, wink**

 The Chick didn’t write this, ESPN did …

… “Bullpen Blowup

The Yankees traded Kyle Farnsworth on July 31, thinking their bullpen would hold up without the right-hander. However, things have not quite gone as planned — including Aug. 1, the bullpen has allowed three-plus earned runs in four of nine games, including nine runs in Saturday’s game vs the Angels. Here’s a breakdown:

BRING BACK MY FARNSYYYYY!!!!

Also, some news outlets reported that the fan total at Jet Camp yesterday was anywhere from 7,000 to 10,500, but my aching, tired, worn-out, sunburned body will atest that the actual total was 11,523. Yes the media is always right

 
 A little while ago I wrote a post about a pipe-dream that the great Brett Favre could actually be wearing gang green. Last night as I was mid-dream I was woken up by my creaky door opening and my Dad and brother squealing, “Guess what happened?” Half dead I replied, “Brett Favre to the Jets for a third-round pick.” See even in my sleep the chick can predict the future! haha

Ok so I was a round off, but it was true Brett Favre is now a New York Jet. And maybe just maybe all my 20 years of Jet fan misery will end not in heartbreak by the hands of Bill Belichick, but by the great Brett Favre holding up the Vince Lombardi trophy in Miami for the Super Bowl Champion New York JETS. See I think if I continue to blog about all my pipe dreams, then they will come true.

ps- the Chick can’t wait to go to work on Saturday … being a Jets intern will never be the same!!

Ok Ok I’m a Jets intern, but don’t look for inside info on the Jets here. I can say that ESPN.com is reporting that the Jets have received permission to talk to the great Brett Favre (as do the Tampa Bay “I Already Have 15 Million QB’s” Bucs).

Having Favre will just further confuse the entire Jets QB mess with Pennington, Clemens, and Ainge. But hey, If you can get Favre then DO IT!! The only thing is that supposedly the Cheeseheads want a 1st round pick and more in exchange, Eeehh! The Redskins didn’t have to bargain away a first rounder for Dancing Queen Taylor, so I honestly hope the Jets don’t wash away a good pick for the downgraded Favre. But what the hell do I know? I’m only an intern.

 ps- don’t freak the pic is a photoshop dream!

 As if speculation wasn’t nerving enough, sources are confirming that Brett Favre not only wants to play football again in the 2008 season, but he wants OUT of Green Bay. Yes it is true … Favre hates the Cheeseheads!

The only thing that is newsworthy about this story is that fact that despite all the tears back in March, Favre still wants to play. And Green Bay clearly wants to move into the Rodgers-era. But don’t worry cheeseheads no matter where Favre goes remember this: Ronnie Lott is remembered as a 49er not a Jet, Broadway Joe is remembered as a Jet not a Ram, and Kurt Warner is remembered as a Ram and not the other 31 teams in the NFL he played for! There are also countless other players who have jumped ship over the years. The only way you Cheeseheads will truly hate Favre is if he is a Bear, Lion, or my favorite would be a Viking (**the GB v. MIN week 1 game at Lambeau was supposed to be a celebration and retirement of Favre’s 4 … Oops!!)

 I feel like this NFL off-season has been marred by the weirdest events: Tony Gonzalez saves a man’s life, Michael Vick, behind bars, filed for bankruptcy … 10-15 million dollars worth of debt!, and former-NFLer Steve Foley finally settled in his famous cop shooting. And mind you, all of these stories occured THIS week!

But what bothers me this NFL off-season is the high rate of arrests within current NFL players. This morning it was reported that Jacksonville WR, Matt Jones, was arrested on Cocaine charges AND cops actually caught him in the credit card cutting act! W.T.F. is wrong with all these players this season! As if the Chris Henry, Cedric Benson, and Adam “No Longer Pacman” Jones’ are no longer good enough for the NFL, good guys like Jones, Lofa Tatupu, and Kevin Faulk are all feeling the hand of the law! What’s even sadder is the fact that ALL of the arrests with the players mentioned above had to do with drugs, alcohol, or both.

Commissioner Goodell seems to pride himself on “cleaning up” the NFL. But the Matt Jones story made me think …

… remember when you were little and your Mom told you, “don’t touch the stove, it’s hot.” And you laid that little sucker on the red hot stove anyway because you did the opposite of what your Mom told you to do? Well I believe that the current no tolerance policy Goodell has in place is the same theory. Maybe it’s time for a little reverse pyschology Roger!

 Something I really wanted to blog about was a suggestion from my Daddy. You see, every once and a while I’ll write a little bit about my personal life. If you read The Chick page, then you know that me and my family are loyal NY Jets season ticket holders. So with the new Jet-Giant billion dollar stadium being built, the teams are issuing PSLs: Personal Seat Licences. PSLs are meant for the corporate level. Let’s say you have a company that sells pool supplies, Jay’s Pool Supply. Jay’s business does pretty well in the Long Island area and has 78% of its clients are Mets fans. So Jay’s would buy two box seats at Shea Stadium with a PSL. So when Jay’s sells their Mets tickets to its best customers, they sit in seats with a little sign on the box bar that reads, “Jay’s Pool Supply.” Ok no problem there, but here is the issue with PSLs now.

In the new Jet-Giant stadium, the two teams with make it MANDATORY that fans buy a PSL for each seat they have. The PSLs will be anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000 PER SEAT! The PSLs for fans will only grant them the RIGHT to purchase seats, not to have them. For example, my Dad owns six seats in the mezzanine at Giants Stadium. To own the rights to have those seats in the new stadium, my Dad would pay $30,000 ($5,000 x 6 seats = $30,000)! On top of that, my Day would then have to pay another $12,000 for the tickets to the seats ($250 x 6 seats = $1,500; $1,500 x 8 regular season home games = $12,000). All the money my Dad would spend on tickets with the new MANDATORY PSL would be roughly two years of tuition at SUNY Cortland for me and my sister!

Also, the Giants are implementing a survey to see if fans would want to purchase PSLs. First of all, the survey is bogus! It’s just to say that fans have chosen their fate, when in fact a survey would be to cover the Giants ass! Second, no one in their right mind would ever agree to a PSL given the correct facts! Another reason a PSL is bad for fans is the will factor. Let’s say John Smith has had seats 1 - 4 in section 102 for Giants home games since 1950. The seats get passed down from generation to generation. Now Johnny IV is set to own the tickets when his sick Dad, John III, passes away. NOW you can only will tickets to a kin if you have a PSL for each seat! If Johnny III kicks the bucket tomorrow and doesn’t have a PSL for his seats, then Johnny IV is shit out of luck, and the tickets go to some schmo who has been on the Giants season ticket waiting list for 25 years!

Not just the Jets, Giants, and NFL, but the sports world is in a different age my friends. The game itself is not about the fans anymore. Sure fans fill the seats, but those seats are corporate owned, signage is pushed down the fans throat with company logos in bathroom stalls, and ticket prices continue to increase. Let’s take my Dad’s Jets tickets as an example again, the Jets record the past 5 years are as follows: 2003 - 6-10, 2004 - 10-6, 2005 - 4-12, 2006 - 10-6, 2007 - 4-12. Despite three losing seasons in the past five years, my Dad’s Jets tickets have consistently increased $5 per seat, per game EVERY YEAR!!

Another one of my favorite teams, the NY Yankees, are opening a new Stadium next year. The Yanks said when the plans were first announced that to treat the fans to a better game the amount of seats in the lower level will be switched to the higher amount of seats that are in the upper level. Therefore, more fans can view a great game from a better view. Good way to twist things! They are making the fans think that more lower level seating is FOR THE FANS, but in fact the Yankees are turning those $5-10 seats in the nose-bleed section into cash cow $100-$250 seats behind the plate and down the lines. Now you tell me who this benefits? The fans or the wallets?

So do me a favor fans, next time your favorite lifts that championship throphy and says, “this one is for the fans!” Boo like all hell! That championship is really for the sponsors, millionaires who go to the games in suits and ties, companies who but thousand dollar suites every year, and for the corporate office that pushes the fans out of the game!

 The Freak Himself, Jevon Kearse, was charged with DUI late last night near the Vanderbilt University campus. Kearse’s SUV was stopped after cops witnessed the truck weaving back and forth. Kearse refused a breathalyzer, but was arressted after he failed a field soberity test. He was released a few hours later.

Again, sadly, I have to post another NFL bad-behavior post. Enough! The NFL is quickly turning into the NBA with its numerous off-the-field news and aressts. What is more interesting is the fact that Comissioner Goodell prides himself on discipline and almost ALL the off-the-field news we hear about lately is from clients of …

… Drew Rosenhaus! Is PR better then a clean record Mr. Rosenhaus? These players and the NFL should be ashamed of themselves!