North Texas Coach Dan McCarney Suffers Stroke: University of North Texas head football coach Dan McCarney suffered a stroke on Sunday at his Denton, Texas, home and is recovering in the hospital. "I was just sitting down to eat a sandwich when my left side went numb," said McCarney, 58, who coached at Iowa State for 12 seasons and just finished his first with the Mean Green. "The doctors -- and they've been fantastic -- say I'm fine. ... Nothing wrong with me that a little Grey Goose won't cure."

posted by rcade to football at 05:57 PM - 4 comments

Randy Moss Wants to Return to NFL: After retiring from the NFL before the 2011 season, Randy Moss wants to play next season, he announced on Ustream in a chat Monday morning. "I just wanna go to a team and play some football," said Moss, who also used the freedom of personal Internet broadcasting to show off a bag of his own hair and reveal that it smells like sauerkraut.

posted by rcade to football at 11:21 AM - 7 comments

Manningface: Peyton Manning is known as one of the best NFL quarterbacks of all time. He holds many NFL all time records and led his team to victory in in Super Bowl XLI. Manning has lost significant playing time due to a serious neck injury and it is not clear if he will return to the Colts next season, or to football at all. If he does decide to return to the gridiron to try and win another championship (to catch up with his little brother on that score) there is no clear consensus on what team he could possibly end up joining. With that speculation in the mind of every NFL fan this offseason, artist David Rappoccio has begun to visualize what it might look like if Peyton joined your local team (via MetaFilter).

posted by rcade to football at 05:36 PM - 12 comments

Economists Imagine the Death of Football: "The NFL is done for the year, but it is not pure fantasy to suggest that it may be done for good in the not-too-distant future," write academic economists Tyler Cowen and Kevin Grier for Grantland. "The most plausible route to the death of football starts with liability suits. Precollegiate football is already sustaining 90,000 or more concussions each year. If ex-players start winning judgments, insurance companies might cease to insure colleges and high schools against football-related lawsuits."

posted by rcade to football at 03:43 PM - 13 comments

1976 Newspaper Article: Death and Football: During the week that led up to Super Bowl X in 1976, Clark Booth of the Boston alt-weekly Real Paper wrote a prophetic piece on the brutality of pro football, describing the dark side of the sport as a "world of nightmares, cripples and early death." Talking to players and sportswriters before the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers decided the championship, Booth documented the life-shortening toll the game was exacting on its players even back then -- and the denial of the consequences. Among the many harrowing stories is that of Stone Johnson, a 23-year-old Kansas City Chiefs rookie kick returner who died in 1963 after a tackle. "He was running back a kick when he got hit," another journalist told Booth. "He was instantly paralyzed from the neck down and they say he started to yell, 'Oh my God ... Oh my God ... Where's my head? ... Where's my head?" Johnson's No. 33 is retired by the Chiefs though he never played a regular season game. "I remember being thunderstruck reading [the story]," writes New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, who tracked down Booth and revived interest in the article.

posted by rcade to football at 08:07 AM - 5 comments

Kurt Warner: Eli Manning's No Hall of Famer (Yet): Despite Eli Manning's two game-winning Super Bowl drives, he has a long way to go before reaching the Hall of Fame, Kurt Warner told a Phoenix radio station. "I know we put a lot of weight on championships, and rightfully so. But championships are won as a team," said Warner, who pointed out that Manning has a lifetime 82 QB rating and threw 16 or more INTs in five of his eight seasons. "To me, those aren't Hall of Fame numbers and by that I mean every time you step on the field you're a game changer, you're a difference maker. And I don't believe Eli Manning has been that guy until this year."

posted by rcade to football at 11:38 AM - 67 comments

Giants edge Patriots 21 to 17: With just under a minute left the Patriots allowed the Giants to score a touchdown, and then in the final seconds the Pats failed to convert on a hail mary pass.

posted by insomnyuk to football at 10:13 PM - 122 comments

The Hoser's NFL Playoff Picks, Super Bowl XLVI: A Super Bowl pick that has invited Tiquan Underwood over for nachos and beer during the game.

posted by wfrazerjr to football at 01:15 PM - 9 comments

Goodell Suggests 2-Team NFL Expansion: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a TV interview that if the NFL adds a franchise in Los Angeles, it would add a second to expand the league to 34 teams. The league "doesn't want to move any of our teams," Goodell said. "We would like to be back in Los Angeles if we can do it correctly."

posted by rcade to football at 08:07 AM - 8 comments

Les Miles Rips Recruit who Spurned LSU: When top quarterback prospect Gunner Kiel dropped his commitment to LSU to attend Notre Dame in mid-January, LSU coach Les Miles said he understood why the Indiana prep star was staying closer to home. Miles changed his tune at a signing day event, telling fans, "There was a gentleman from Indiana that thought about coming to the Bayou state. He did not necessarily have the chest and the ability to lead a program, so you know."

posted by rcade to football at 09:40 AM - 20 comments

Four Nights in Indianapolis for Just $16,000: Some hotel rooms in downtown Indianapolis are going for $4,000 a night with a four-night minimum over the Super Bowl. The city has only 6,000 hotel rooms -- 14,000 less than the NFL requires within one hour's drive of the game site -- and procrastinators are paying the price. "It's insane," said Alan Banchand. "This is my 16th Super Bowl, and I've never, never, never seen prices like this."

posted by rcade to football at 08:08 AM - 8 comments

SEC Schools Sign Fewer Players In 2012: So what impact did the SEC's new soft 25-man signing cap have on the league's programs in its first year? A pretty big one.

On average, SEC schools signed about three less players apiece on signing day 2012 than they did on signing day 2011. And for our purposes we include both Missouri and Texas A&M though they were in the Big 12 for previous signing days.

posted by preacher81 to football at 11:18 AM - 1 comment

Penn State Recruiting Class Flops as Top Athletes Decommit: As colleges secure players on National Signing Day, Penn State's recruiting class for 2012 fell apart after the child sex abuse scandal and the slow hire of new coach Bill O'Brien to succeed the late Joe Paterno. Seven players cancelled their commitments to the school after the scandal, including four ranked in the top 250 by Rivals. All four signed with Ohio State. The best recruit going to Penn State is probably Eugene Lewis of Plymouth, Pa., a quarterback projected to play wide receiver. "I'm excited for him to be my coach," Lewis said of O'Brien. "He's definitely a guy I want to play for." Penn State didn't get a single big-impact recruit from the state of Pennsylvania, reports PennLive: "[A]ll of the big names PSU once had its mitts on are gone."

posted by rcade to football at 11:19 AM - 9 comments

Madden: Pro Bowl 'Embarrassment to Pro Football': Coach and commentator John Madden said Sunday's Pro Bowl should be the last the NFL ever plays. "It was pathetic," he told KBCS radio. "It was embarrassing to pro football. And if they're going to play like that -- or not play like that -- there shouldn't even be a game. ... They just can't keep embarrassing themselves. Heck, the fans in Hawaii were booing them." Though ratings for the game were down 8 percent, it was still the most-watched sports event of the weekend.

posted by rcade to football at 03:51 PM - 20 comments

Ochocinco Doesn't Rate a Podium at Super Bowl Media Day: For Super Bowl media day today, 18 members of the New England Patriots were given podiums. Wide receiver Chad Ochocinco wasn't one of them, but he was grateful and humble when interviewed by Deion Sanders in the crowd. "I don't need a podium," he said. Ochocinco's 15 catches, 276 yards and one touchdown are career lows. "He hasn't even been targeted once in the playoffs," said Rich Eisen on the NFL Network. Asked earlier what he learned this season, Ochocinco said, "That I can finally shut the [expletive] up."

posted by rcade to football at 10:52 AM - 19 comments

Kravitz: 'Peyton Manning is Done in Indianapolis': After Peyton Manning gave an interview to Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz about how everyone's "walking around on eggshells" at the Indianapolis Colts facility because of all the staff turnover, Colts owner Jim Irsay called Manning a "politician" and said he should've kept his comments "in the family." Kravitz said the spat shows that Manning's not going to be kept by the team: "My fervent hope is this doesn't continue to devolve. We are talking about good people in a bad situation, the thorniest situation since the 49ers traded Joe Montana."

posted by rcade to football at 09:55 AM - 53 comments

Colts Hire Chuck Pagano as Head Coach: The Indianapolis Colts have chosen Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano to be their new head coach, succeeding Jim Caldwell. Pagano, 51, has never been a head coach. He was coordinator this year for the Ravens after three years coaching defensive backs and had prior stints with the Cleveland Browns and Oakland Raiders.

posted by yerfatma to football at 07:45 PM - 1 comment

NFL Logos of the Non-Existent Past: "Gridiron League is a collection of idealized NFL insignias that pay tribute to each team's history and geography in a period-specific aesthetic that glorifies the Vince Lombardi-era over the Cold-Activated-era. ... Many NFL franchises ... have updated their uniforms and logos to a swooshed-out, dropped-shadowed, and more commercial-ready image, ignoring a good deal of their team's heritage and the original rough-and-tumble character that the league stood for." -- Wes Kull

posted by rcade to football at 03:50 PM - 16 comments

Vikings Punter Trolls Skip Bayless for Kicks: How does Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe feel about ESPN commentator Skip Bayless' idea of taking field goal kicking out of football entirely? "Hey [expletive]," he told him on Twitter. "Let's not forget you haven't done a single athletic thing in your life. Go french kiss a flamethrower." Kluwe said a lot more and followed up by telling a sports columnist what he'd like to tell Bayless on ESPN's First Take: "I hope you fall down an elevator shaft onto a burning pile of rusted AIDS needles."

posted by rcade to football at 10:44 AM - 31 comments

Giants Sought to Give Kyle Williams Another Concussion: Several players for the New York Giants said they targeted San Francisco 49ers returner Kyle Williams because of his history of concussions. "We knew he had four concussions, so that was our biggest thing, was to take him outta the game," said Giants special teamer Jacquian Williams. "He's had a lot of concussions. We were just like, 'We gotta put a hit on that guy,'" said another Giant, Devin Thomas.

posted by rcade to football at 08:23 AM - 40 comments

Giants, Patriots in Super Rematch: The New England Patriots and New York Giants booked a rematch of Super Bowl 0x2A on Sunday. Lawrence Tynes kicked a 31-yard overtime field goal to give the Giants a 20-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC, while the Patriots won 23-20 over the Baltimore Ravens when kicker Billy Cundiff missed on a 32-yard field goal attempt with 11 seconds remaining in the AFC.

posted by rcade to football at 12:08 AM - 90 comments

Penn State Coach Joe Paterno Dies: Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has died after a battle with lung cancer, his family said. He was 85. Penn State's Board of Trustees fired him in November after a grand jury indictment revealed that Paterno was told former assistant Jerry Sandusky engaged in a sexual act with a 10-year-old boy in the team's showers but did not notify police. He was the winningest coach in college football history after 46 years leading the school.

posted by rcade to football at 10:31 AM - 59 comments

Whether he retired or was fired, offensive coordinator Bruce Arians is officially no longer with the Pittsburgh Steelers: Despite a second straight 12-4 season, two 1,000 yard receivers, and a running game that averaged 4.4 yards per carry, Arians is out. Now the speculation begins about who will replace Ben Roethlisberger's favorite coach. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports writer, Gerry Dulac, writes that since running back coach Kirby Wilson was badly burned in a house fire earlier this month, he is unlikely to be able to take the position as had been expected. So will the Steelers look outside the organization for only the 3rd time since 1969 or will they promote from within? Perhaps current quarterback's coach Randy Fichtner?

posted by scully to football at 08:36 AM - 19 comments

Rams Will Play in London Next 3 Years: The St. Louis Rams will play one regular-season home game in London for each of the next three years, beginning with a game against the New England Patriots at Wembley Stadium in October. Rams owner Stanley Kroenke has British sports ties as majority shareholder in the Premiership side Arsenal. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been pushing for a team to play annually in London, saying it will "lead us to what we ultimately would like to do -- have a franchise here in London." Eleven million people watched NFL football in England last season, a 32 percent increase in the past two years.

posted by rcade to football at 11:41 AM - 12 comments

"Peyton Manning Will Retire": says long-time NFL beat reporter Rob Lowe. I'm sure he played a reporter at some point.

posted by yerfatma to football at 04:17 PM - 5 comments

Indianapolis Colts fire Jim Caldwell: Caldwell and his staff have been in limbo since early January, when owner Jim Irsay fired club vice chairman Bill Polian and vice president/general manager Chris Polian and hired Ryan Grigson as g.m.

posted by tommytrump to football at 02:55 PM - 1 comment

Bill Belichick: "the NFL's last real anarchist."

posted by yerfatma to football at 10:31 AM - 20 comments

First item of business for new Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel: have the office swept for bugs.

posted by yerfatma to football at 03:48 PM - 4 comments

Giants Send Green Bay Packing: For the second time in four years, the New York Giants made a playoff trip as underdogs to Lambeau Field and left with a victory over the Green Bay Packers. The Giants advance to the NFC Championship Game with a 37-20 win, powered by Eli Manning's 21 for 33 passing with 330 yards and three touchdowns. Hakeem Nicks caught seven of the passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns. "There is no way to sugarcoat the Packers' performance," writes Gary D'Amato of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "It was easily their worst of the season, far worse than their 19-14 loss to Kansas City in Week 15."

posted by rcade to football at 11:32 PM - 30 comments

Ravens Hold Off Texans 20-13: The Baltimore Ravens held off the Houston Texans 20-13 in Sunday's AFC divisional round playoff game, advancing to their third conference championship since becoming the Ravens. Houston fell behind 17-3 in the first quarter but did not give up another point until Billy Cundiff kicked a field goal with 2:56 left in the game. The Ravens forced four turnovers, including two interceptions of T.J. Yates.

posted by rcade to football at 11:25 PM - 7 comments

Patriots Win Laugher Over Broncos: The Denver Broncos didn't have a prayer against the New England Patriots Saturday, losing 45-10 in their AFC divisional playoff. Pats quarterback Tom Brady threw for six touchdowns and 363 yards. Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe called it a victory of "biblical proportions." Brady quick kicked on third down near the end of the game for 48 yards, which put the Broncos at their own 10 before a penalty. "It's got to be like seven, eight years since the last time we did it," coach Bill Belichick said.

posted by rcade to football at 09:14 AM - 42 comments

49ers Win Thriller Over Saints: In a game that featured four lead changes in the final 4:02, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the New Orleans Saints to advance to the NFC Championship Game. San Fran quarterback Alex Smith ran for a 28-yard touchdown and threw a 14-yard touchdown to tight end Vernon Davis in the waning minutes.

posted by rcade to football at 08:55 PM - 18 comments

Jeff Fisher Chooses Rams Over Dolphins: Jeff Fisher, widely expected to reach a deal to become the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, chose the St. Louis Rams instead on Friday. "The process has been lengthy, but for good reasons," Fisher said. "I took a lot of time looking at and exploring in detail the non-economic issues of both clubs." He was 262-142 in seventeen seasons leading the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans and took the team to Super Bowl 0x22. Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports said the choice hinged on Dolphins owner Stephen Ross not giving Fisher more power. He reportedly told Ross, "I've been a head coach for 17 years and 12 of them sucked because I had to fight for what I wanted."

posted by rcade to football at 12:50 PM - 10 comments

The Hoser's NFL Playoff Picks, Week 2 2011: NFL picks that TEBOW! are starting to TEBOW! come around to TEBOW! TEBOW!

posted by wfrazerjr to football at 09:05 AM - 20 comments

Agent Leigh Steinberg Pens Own 'Jerry Maguire' Letter: Leigh Steinberg, the sports agent who inspired the film Jerry Maguire, has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy and sent an e-mail to friends and associates talking about his financial troubles, professional woes and struggles as an alcoholic that bears a resemblance to the mission statement that upended Maguire's career. "I have struggled with alcohol for a number of years," Steinberg wrote in the email. "In the past five or six years I began to check out episodically for short periods. My judgment and oversight of my affairs was not consistent and at times impaired. ... The underlying cause of my inability to earn money and resolve my debt situation occurred in 2003. One of my employees admitted that -- without my knowledge -- he had taken a $300,000 loan from one of our NFL clients."

posted by rcade to football at 12:03 PM - 4 comments

John Parr Remakes 'St. Elmos Fire' as 'Tim Tebow's Fire': John Parr, the British musician who had a No. 1 hit in 1985 with "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)," has rewritten the lyrics to turn it into "Tim Tebow's Fire." Sample lyric: "Gonna be a man in motion, all I need is my Broncos' team. Take me where the future's lying, Tim Tebow's fire."

posted by rcade to football at 11:39 AM - 14 comments

Bobby Hebert Defends Confronting Les Miles: Former NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert, now a radio host in New Orleans and the father of an LSU player, was unapologetic about the way he questioned LSU coach Les Miles after the BCS title game. Hebert's monologue disguised as a question: "Did you ever consider bringing in Jarrett Lee? Considering that you weren't taking any chances down the field -- now, I know Alabama's defense is dominant, but come on, that's ridiculous. Five first downs! I'll tell you the fans' standpoint: How can you not maybe push the ball down the field and bring in Jarrett Lee? So what if you get a pick-six? I know the pass rush of Alabama. But not pushing the ball downfield, considering you have (receivers) Rueben Randle and Odell Beckham Jr. -- there's no reason why five first downs. You have a great defense, but that's ridiculous. ... Do you think you should have pushed the football more downfield?"

posted by rcade to football at 09:17 AM - 9 comments

Jaguars Hire Mike Mularkey as Third Head Coach: The Jacksonville Jaguars have hired Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey as the third head coach in franchise history and first under new owner Shahid Khan, the Florida Times-Union reported late Tuesday night. Mularkey, 50, was the head coach of the Buffalo Bills from 2004-05, amassing a 14-18 record.

posted by rcade to football at 10:08 PM - 8 comments

Packers Coach Loses Son in Apparent Drowning: A body found in Wisconsin's Fox River Monday afternoon is that of Michael Philbin, the missing 21-year-old son of Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin. The younger Philbin was last heard from at 2 a.m. Sunday while visiting friends in Oshkosh. A 911 call at 2:36 a.m. that night indicated a person was calling for help in thin ice on the river 30 yards from shore, but rescue crews didn't find anyone.

posted by rcade to football at 01:04 PM - 14 comments

Alabama Wins BCS: The Alabama Crimson Tide, led by five Jeremy Shelley field goals and a smothering defense that held the LSU Tigers scoreless, won the BCS Championship Game 21-0 Monday night. Trent Richardson scored on a 34-yard run in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Alabama wins its second college football title in three years under head coach Nick Saban.

posted by rcade to football at 11:35 PM - 23 comments