The Sports Chick Blog

NY Giants DE Michael Strahan achieved everything he could after his team won the Super Bowl in February this year. He played for 15 seasons with the Giants and represented them 7 times in the Pro Bowl. In 2001 he broke Mark Gastineau’s single-season sack record with 22 1/2 and is 5th all-time in sacks with 141 1/2.

So why am I wrapping up such a stellar career? Because it is a wrap. Michael Strahan announced today, through his agent, that he is retiring from the NFL. Strahan told Foxsports.com,

“It was important that my teammates knew which way I was going before they got on the field to start the work to defend our title, … It’s time. I’m done.” 

 There is no doubt that with the Super Bowl 42 win Strahan will be in the Hall of Fame.

Be honest after Cedric Benson was arrested back in May for his boating incident you felt a little bad for the guy. Reports were published that he was hog-tied and pepper sprayed by the police. Benson was warned of his miscounduct by the Bears, and everyone seemed to move on.

NOW, Benson became the biggest moron in football after it became known that he was arrested AGAIN! This time for drunk driving. Benson admits that he had a couple drinks at his mother’s birthday party in Austin, Texas, but he did not feel like he was intoxicated. HELLO!?!? You shouldn’t be driving with two/three drinks in your system, AND you were warned by your team of your dumbass behavior! So what the hell was Benson thinking when he drove home at 2am? Is a little alcohol worth your career or contract? No you moron! Benson was charged with DWI and released on bond.

Bears coach, Lovie Smith, said at a team event at Soldier Field that everyone deserves the benefit of doubt. But this is the SECOND time Benson has had serious trouble with the law in the past month! Feel no sympathy for the Bears on this one, and shame on them if they blow it over. And as far as the NFL goes, Roger Goodell’s track record shows that he “takes no s***.” Expect the heavy hand of the NFL law to come down on Benson for his second strike.

UPDATE 6-9-2008: Benson was officially released by the Bears. Â

 Chad Johnson finally realizes that he has it good in Cincy. The hot topic WR was demanding a trade in true diva fashion the whole off-season, but now he has switched his tune. In an article with ESPN the Magazine Johnson says that he’ll be back in Cincinnati this season.

“Am I coming back? Of course I am,” Johnson said while standing in front of his Davie, Fla., home. He had been acting as the editor-in-chief of ESPN The Magazine’s second annual Revenge of the Jocks issue. 

“I told my coaches I’m going to California to act, but the truth is I may come back to the Bengals as early as June,” Johnson said.

“I may be crazy but I’m not stupid.”

Well said superstar! If you go on to read the rest of the article it is apparent that Johnson wants the defense to change next season, and not the Bengals offense. He says that the team needs some explosion on defense much like Indy and NE. I must say tha Ocho-Cinco is right with this one. Anyone with half a brain realizes that there is nothing wrong with the Cincy offense, they just need a few more power, explosive, and strong plays on defense, then they will be the team everyone secretly roots for. 

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 I’m interning for the Jets this summer, and if I plan on working in the NFL after it I’ll probably be jobless in 2011. The NFL Owners votes unamiously to opt out of the current labor agreement. Mainly in part because the players recieve 60% of the revenue the league currently generates and they want more of the pie.

Football will be fine next year, but as of now the 2010 year will be cap-free and there will most likely be a work stoppage in 2011. What the Owners don’t realize is that they should be paying the players more of a percentage of overall league revenue. Think about it, without the players there is no team, no games, no advertising, no ticket sales, no merchandise, no apperances, and others! Everything starts with the players and if the Owners think that short-changing the players in the future is a plus, then they are dead wrong.

The NFL is headed down the same road the NHL was a few years ago. Let’s just hope nothing gets blow out of porportion. Otherwise thousands of people working for the NFL in 2011 will be jobless.

 In a world full of Brangelina, Bennifer, and TomKat, my favorite Yoko Romo is caput! That’s right! Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo have OFFICIALLY split! Now everyone can go place your Super Bowl bets on Dallas this year!

Looks like Romo got the chills when Jess referred to him as her “future husband” in a recent Glamour magazine article.

Rule #725 in dating a sports star: don’t ever ever refer to your bachelor hunky boyfriend as your “future husband.” Dummy!

 Spygate, as the Patriots video-taping scandal has been dubbed, reached another peak the other day. It was revealed that the tapes Matt Walsh released in an imdemnification agreement with the NFL (**for those of you not taking Sport Law, an imdemnification agreement is when a party agrees to reimburse another party based on an occurence.) did actually catch the Patriots stealing Offense signals. One of the tapes was a game in 2001 against the Miami Dolphins. The tape shows various Miami coaches giving hand signals to Miami players, then spliced with an endzone camera shot of the play.

IF the NFL does have an imdemnification agreement with Walsh, then trust me Walsh will be reimbursed handsomely. But there is one thing that bugs me about the whole Spygate scandal… Arlen Specter. The PA Senator needs to but out! Doesn’t the senate have more important issues to worry about like oh I don’t know the presidential election, the war, oil prices! It is true that the NFL and the Gov’t can both be involved with the issue, but should this really be Specter’s main priority right now? It shouldn’t be!

click here for more info on Spygate from ESPN.com.

 Take this off my list of “things to do before I die” … I had the NFL Draft experience!! Mikey (my brother) and I joined our fellow draft-junkies at the Jets Draft party at Dave and Buster’s on 42nd Street.

Now here’s how to get anything in life, NAME DROP!! At first we showed up an hour early to the party, BIG mistake! We really should’ve been there early in the morning to get a good table, but Mikey had baseball practice. Anyway, we get up to the third floor where the party was being held, and a big security guy asked for ID’s. For a split second I thought of using my fake, but decided against it. I didn’t plan on drinking anyway. So I show my ID and was quickly turned away from the Draft Party, and why? Because you had to be 25!! What?!?! And this isn’t a Jets Draft Party rule, it’s a D&B Rule.

So as me and Mikey were being whisked away from the door three little 4 foot shits were running right past us! This is bullshit! Apparently one person in your party had to be 25 or older to be let in, something I was not aware of. So we waited about 10-20 minutes, and I did it … I name dropped. I walked my butt right back up to the secuirty guard and he was clearly pissed that I was back, and this is what I said, “My Aunt works for the Jets and I was told to ask for XXXX XXXXXXXX. He is expecting me and my brother.” Clearly pissed, the security guard said nothing and let us in.

What he didn’t know was that my Aunt indirectly works for the Jets and the guy I asked for was at a different Draft party!

We had an awesome time at the party, besides the beginning, and the best moment was actually when Darren McFadden went to the hated Raiders. The whole party went silent then let out a chorus of “Fuck,” “Shit,” “Damn,” and the less vulgar “Oh Well!” It still amazes me every year that the first pick gives me chills, but this year my LEAST favorite team, the Miami Dolphins, selected OT Jake Long number one. Boos on top of more boos were heard all over NYC and I loved it!!!

Vernon Gholston is an awesome choice for the Jets and I think the clip that got the most smiles on the Jets-faithful faces was when Gholston made a fool of Jake Long in the Michigan - Ohio State game, and in the words of the ESPN Draft Day crew, “Welcome to the AFC East Jake!”

Being at the Jets Draft party was an really cool experience, but one day I hope to actually get there!! And until then …

… ONLY 363 days til the 2009 Draft!!!!!  

 Relax football fans! After you hand in your taxes tomorrow you can flick on ESPN at 2pm for one of my favorite days. Tomorrow the NFL releases the team-by-team schedules. Now the matchups have been released until 2010, but we as fans don’t know the exact date of the games. Here is the report by ESPN:

The NFL plans to announce its full 2008 schedule Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET.

The planned announcement, confirmed by the league in a news release Monday, will reveal dates, times and television schedules. Teams have known their opponents for months, thanks to the NFL’s scheduling formula.

The league previously announced four nationally televised matchups for Week 1.

The Washington Redskins open the 2008 season when they visit the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants on Thursday, Sept. 4 (NBC, 7 p.m. ET). The Chicago Bears visit the Indianapolis Colts on Sept. 7 (NBC, 8:15 p.m. ET) in a rematch of Super Bowl XLI.

ESPN’s coverage begins with a “Monday Night Football” doubleheader Sept. 8. The Minnesota Vikings visit the Green Bay Packers in the first game at 7 p.m. ET. The Oakland Raiders then host the Denver Broncos in the second game at 10:15 p.m. ET.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3346685

ps- Happy 32nd Birthday Kyle Farnsworth … may you one day realize that you don’t have to give up a run everytime you pitch!

 My Jets finally woke up from their off-season hell and finally realized that they need to spend money! The Jets not only dropped dead weight (Vilma LB to NO; Robertson NT to CIN), but they gained much more. The Jets have reportedly signed long-term deals with Alan Faneca and Damien Woody (Offensive Lineman), Kris Jenkins (D-Line), and Calvin Pace (DE/LB). The Jets signed all the players above to deals or extentions for five to six years with all of them getting around twenty million gauranteed. The Jets now have four out of their five O-Lineman who were former first round picks: D’Brickashaw Ferguson (2006), Alan Faneca (1998), Nick Mangold (2006), and Damien Woody (1999).

Now all the Jets need is a gun slinging QB, and I would seriously consider them a team to watch for in the 2008 NFL Season. I can’t wait for this year’s draft!!!

For more of the Jets big free agency moves, check out the NY Post’s Jets Blog: http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/jets/

 Since I dislike both the Giants and Patriots, I decided to do a little experiment and watch the Super Bowl like half the worlds population … I watched as a female, and not a football fanatic. After experiencing the Super Bowl like a “girl” I’ve realized why my fellow females HATE THE SUPER BOWL!!

We were forced to watch two teams we could care less about (the score being 7-3 most of the game didn’t help either!), watch a Halftime show featuring a singer that is 20 years older than my Dad, and the biggest dissappointment of the night was definitely the commericals! As each commericial went by I thought “well hopefully this one is better,” but no they were terrible!

Each commercial made me wonder why the hell would a company spend millions and millions of dollars on 30 seconds of pure crap! Now there were a few “haha that was cute” commercials such as, the Bridgestone squirrel scream, and the Rocky themed Budweiser. But other than that the commercials were the worst I’ve ever seen! click here to see the misery for yourself! However, my favorite of the night was the NFL sponsored spot of the Super Ad. It featured Houston Texans Ephraim Salaam and Chester Pitts. The NFL had various players tell stories from their NFL careers and the best story would be featured in an Ad. The Texans story was cleary the best, and funniest! Click here to see it!  

After the NFL Super Ad aired my experiment ended. I realized that no matter how much I hated my NY Jets rivals, I was still a football fan! I still got the chills during the National Anthem, and during the touchdowns! Football is a sport that thrills those who thrill it. The commercials never got better, and by the 4th quarter I was back to my old form and watching the game for the game. The Manning to Tyree pass within the last minute of the game was one of the greatest Super Bowl moments I’ve seen! So congrats to the Giants (and to my friends and family who are Giants fans). I only hope that your Super Bowl 42 win will make you heckle me and my fellow Jets fans less, but I’ve lived under the shadows of NYC for too long and I know it’s only gonna get worse! So LET’S GO JETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!