By Dave Gilmore, on January 31st, 2012  The only thing more obsolete than the NFL Pro Bowl is complaining about the NFL Pro Bowl. Fans have been tired of the former for years and have now just given up on the latter and simply stopped watching. Making the Pro Bowl the NFL’s black sheep event is warranted for all the usual reasons people list.
There may have been a time when the NFL needed the Pro Bowl. That time is not 2012. I’m not propsing that it be tweaked, moved or reinvent it. The NFL needs to cut bait and simply can the Pro Bowl as we know it. So what does the league do the week before or the week after the Super Bowl? Tap the one asset the NFL has where there is any headroom for growth: new talent. College football all-star games are already suffering from “bowl sprawl,” with five major games in January. The future NFL star is the lowest-hanging fruit the NFL could possibly ask for.
Imagine if the NFL (with the cooperation of the NFLPA, which already stages a college all-star game), put on a top-flight all star game in Hawaii or Florida featuring the best draft-eligible players. The NFL Draft and Combine grow larger every year and this would be a great opportunity for NFL fans not immersed in the college game become familiar with their future NFL stars. Who wouldn’t watch that? It’s a slam-dunk. Roger Goodell, earn your extension and make this happen.
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By Weston Bruner, on January 28th, 2012  The players deserve the pageantry, because the schools take control as soon as its over. Saturday morning- growing up that meant superhero cartoons with my siblings and staying in my pajamas as long as possible. Years later it meant something was horribly wrong, since I was never awake by noon on Saturday. Now it appears it means a new timeslot for this column, joining Lindsey for your weekend BSR content. So grab a bowl of cereal, try to ignore how much less appealing Batman, and X-Men cartoons are now than they were 20 years ago and enjoy Broken Bat’s move to Saturday!
By this time next week we will have hit college football’s signing day, the most overhyped ESPN-manufactured event since, well, every NFL Draft and “The Decision.” Thousands of college kids will announce and sign their letters of intent, and committing themselves in writing to attend that particular university. READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on January 24th, 2012  If I were setting odds in Vegas, I’d say the Orioles chances of landing Prince Fielder are about 100:1. But after witnessing the heartbreak that the Ravens just endured in New England, I have to have something to wish before September.
Just as Lloyd Christmas found hope in his one in a million shot of landing Mary Swanson — or Samsonite — I too have to take Prince’s last remaining hours as a free agent and wonder what the next 5-10 years would be like with him in a cartoon bird hat.
More than anything I wish to see the Orioles turn the ship around and put a winning product on the field. I long for meaningful September baseball — and not just the kind where the O’s send the Sox (and their fans from Delaware and Virginia) home disappointed. I don’t see those days in the near future, but some Orioles buzz would be generated if Dan Duquette could bring Prince Fielder to Baltimore.
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By Dave Gilmore, on January 24th, 2012  It’s been an emotional 48 hours. Let’s call it a “cooling off period.” If you said anything bananas on Facebook or Twitter or to an entire room full of your friends, so be it. All is forgiven, tensions were running high, after all. It was an abnormally stressful situation in perhaps the biggest game in a decade for Baltimore Ravens fans.
Now that the cooling off period is over, and you’ve perhaps retracted or rethought some of the things you said or wrote, how do you feel towards Billy Cundiff? If you’re not experiencing something nearing “empathy” by now, that’s a problem.
I’m not saying you can’t be frustrated or wring your hands over the should-haves and what-ifs. That’s natural when you’re so invested in a cause that fails, especially one you have no direct control over. However at this point, the deconstruction of the Ravens 23-20 loss needs to be about the game and the playoff run in its entirety, not a single play (which happened to be the last play of the season).
Billy Cundiff did as we all should and will do in life: he tried and failed. There is literally no reason for Cundiff to have not given his best effort under the circumstances. Things could’ve gone down differently. A timeout could’ve been burned, a catch could have been made, a block could’ve been sealed just a bit longer – nobody is faultless on an NFL Sunday. Nobody. AFC Championship games included.
So ruling out the fact that Cundiff didn’t try and make the kick, what are we left with? The answer is that we are forced to confront our own doubts, fears, failures, and fallibility. If you’re screaming at Billy Cundiff still a day or two later, Google mapping Lee Evans’ home or a deranged Niners “fan” sending death threats to Kyle Williams via Twitter, you have a lot more going on than fandom. READ MORE >>>
By Matt Lund, on January 22nd, 2012  In a match-up of two teams with very contrasting styles of play, the AFC’s #2 seeded Baltimore Ravens traveled north to take on the #1 seed New England Patriots for the AFC Championship.
The Ravens played the role of spoiler before, handing the Patriots a 33-14 loss at Gillette Stadium in the 2009 wild card playoffs, but that particular match-up was different than this one.
The Patriots didn’t have a young duo of TE’s in Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. They also didn’t have Wes Welker, who was injured during the Patriots playoff run that year.
Still that did not faze the Ravens as they confused and frustrated Patriots QB Tom Brady in the game, much like they did in 2009. The Ravens defense picked off Brady twice and sacked him once.
The Ravens had an offensive and defensive game plan that on most afternoons contributes to a Ravens victory. Despite that however, it came down to the right foot of kicker Billy Cundiff to tie the game and send it to overtime when Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal wide left giving the Patriots the 23-20 victory and an AFC Championship in front of the home crowd. READ MORE >>>
By Lindsey, on January 21st, 2012  Here’s what I’ve gathered in the past week from the national media: Baltimore is a terrible place to live, Joe Flacco completely sucks at playing quarterback in the NFL, and the Ravens have no chance to beat the Patriots. For one thing, I love living in Baltimore and, contrary to popular belief, I don’t have to duck to avoid being hit by stray bullets every five minutes. Another thing – Joe Flacco doesn’t have the stats of Drew Brees or the arm of Aaron Rodgers. But where are Drew Brees’ stats? Closed until next season. And Aaron Rodgers’ arm is resting on the armrest of his sofa while he watches the championship games on his plasma tv (sorry, Aaron). As for the Ravens having no chance of beating the Patriots… let’s just take a break from the Ravens-hate field day and look at a few facts, shall we? :
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By Gregg Cobert, on January 21st, 2012 Typically, assistant coaches do not end up making coverage here at BSR unless your name is Cam Cameron or you make a knuckle-headed decision. Dalonte Hill committed the latter. Hill, one of the assistant coaches on the Terps bench, will not be on the bench the next two games after getting arrested for suspicion of DUI. The crazy part is that this is the second time Hill has been suspended. The same incident occurred in January 2008 when he was an assistant at Kansas State.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident just in College Park as Pat Forde points out in his Forde Minutes. It is amusing reading about Fran McCaffery’s chair tossing and how it doesn’t even come close to being the benchmark for the Big 10.
Dalonte Hill is an excellent recruiter as he was the man who was able to recruit Michael Beasley to Kansas State due to his DC Assault roots. However, it feels coaches say one thing to their players and then not follow it themselves. The double standard is amazing. Coaches are supposed to teach young men life lessons that hopefully extend beyond sports, but with misconduct, it shows the double standard. If a player were to be arrested for suspicion of DUI, I don’t think the punishment would be 2 games. Errors in judgment do occur for everyone but for repeat offenders clearly they did not learn from their initial punishment.
However, the bottom line is this. As long as coaches get wins or score the big recruits, they will still be able to find gainful employment. However, please don’t call yourselves teachers because it just confuses your pupils.
By Matt Lund, on January 20th, 2012
Legendary lead singer of Aerosmith and current American Idol judge Steven Tyler will sing the national anthem before the Ravens and New England Patriots square off on Sunday at Gillette Stadium for the AFC Championship.
This isn’t Tyler’s first time at the rodeo however, as he has sung the national anthem before some pretty big-time events including the Indianapolis 500 and the 2010 Boston Bruins season-opener.
But there are ties to Boston for both he and the band and Tyler himself is no stranger to the New England Patriots. The links and ironies are so many, that it feels like the movie “Six Degrees of Separation“, only we’re not just discussing people.
Tyler moved to Boston from Yonkers, N.Y. in 1970 and the band eventually became known as “The Bad Boys from Boston”.
But it doesn’t stop there. READ MORE >>>
By Weston Bruner, on January 20th, 2012 Well it looks like I am delayed today, which means that at least there will be some fresh sports content between Friday at
 Fielder isn't the only one swinging for the fences and hoping not to strike out. noon and Monday morning. However, I am not the only one procrastinating- Prince Fielder is still on the market and while the Orioles are most certainly not in the running for his services (even Washington is more competitive and there is no doubt they would back up the Brinks truck for him) he will have a significant role in some team’s long-term future. Personally I am rooting for him to join the Rangers, a team that would seemingly be strung as far as they can go after their Yu Darvish signing, but Tom Verducci has a very compelling idea of how they could go after him by offering him an opt-out after three years. Regardless, this is another example of Scott Boras taking a big risk and hoping it pays off. READ MORE >>>
By Dave Gilmore, on January 17th, 2012  A sparse chant of “let Joe throw!” echoes down from a small cadre of fans in purple camo pants sitting in the 200-level. From the same corner of M&T Bank Stadium, a season ticket holder shouts in a hoarse Dundalk pitch “let Rice run the f$#%ing ball!” Their dissonance melds into a single cacophony that breezes in the general direction of Malcolm “Cam” Cameron. The Ravens offensive coordinator hears none of this. He glances up at the game clock. 5:54 remains in the third quarter. It is Christmas Even 2011, and the Ravens have just stretched their lead over the Cleveland Browns to 20-0. Nobody seems pleased.
They say the best position to have in a football town is backup quarterback. You get to wear a baseball cap and a pair of headphones and look like you’re listening intently during timeouts. Nobody knows what you might be capable of if called in for duty. Thus, you might be the next Joe Montana. If backup QB is the most desirable job in football, offensive coordinator ranks dead last, just behind the guy responsible for washing Terrence Cody’s jock.
The play-caller is the most important decision-maker in the scope of a single football game. A non-play-calling head coach might make a crucial “go for it on 4th” decision or throw a pivotal challenge flag, but ultimately, everything that leads a team into those situations is dictated by the decisions made by the offensive coordinator. Cam Cameron made 62 decisions on that chilly Christmas Eve afternoon. Every single one of them was questioned. Maybe Cam Cameron deserves to be questioned. To a certain extent, so does every decision maker in pro sports. However, what Cameron endures publicly would make most of us crumble privately. How much of it is warranted, and how much of it is “Mobtown” simply piling on? READ MORE >>>
By Matt Lund, on January 16th, 2012 The Baltimore Ravens returned to the friendly confines of M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday afternoon, fresh off a much-needed bye week, taking on a hungry and determined Houston Texans squad primed to make it to their first ever AFC Championship Game.
The Ravens held off a Texans rushing attack, led by RB Arian Foster who carried the ball 27 times for 132 yards and a touchdown. The name of the game however was turnovers and the Ravens had four takeaways total – two in the final eight minutes of regulation- to secure the 20-13 victory over Houston in front of a loud crowd of 71,547 at “The Bank” (the largest crowd in Ravens history) and advancing to their second trip to the AFC Championship game in four years under head coach John Harbaugh.
Winning the turnover battle and time of possession were keys to victory in the game, but important because the first two turnovers, all in the 1st quarter, led to both of the Ravens touchdowns on the day. Using the bye week to prepare, the Ravens appeared focused, not committing a single penalty in the game – a first in Baltimore Ravens history – and not turning the ball over once themselves.
The Ravens will travel to Foxboro to take on the New England Patriots for the AFC Championship on Sunday, January 22nd at 3:00 pm. The last time the Ravens traveled to Gillette Stadium, they trounced the Patriots 33-14 in the 2009 AFC Wildcard Playoffs. READ MORE >>>
By Lindsey, on January 14th, 2012 In 2000, the Ravens were a team of strictly defense. With a weak offense, they managed to win a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. Eleven years later, the Ravens still have a strong defense, and an equally strong offense. With an explosive running game, a Fu Manchu-wearing quarterback, a sack king with his own university slogan, and the same legendary linebacker as in 2000, this Ravens team has virtually all of the elements it needs to take home another trophy. But aside from the big names, what about the players who are making just as influential moves? After the jump, I’ll count down the Top 5 Breakout Ravens from this regular season…
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By Weston Bruner, on January 13th, 2012 I am curious: what exactly does it take for a commissioner not to be considered a hero by his owners? In recent years,
 How exactly is this the best MLB could do? despite all of the upheaval and utterly moronic moves by culturally and psychologically cloistered commissioners, they seem to live on in their positions, promoted not only to incompetency but far beyond it. When Bud Selig announced that he was coming back through 2014 for another round overseeing the demise of America’s pastime, I found myself wondering whether being a commissioner might be the easiest job to retain in the country. As long as the commish is content to be a puppet of the owners behind the scenes and a Generalissimo in front of the cameras, he can do whatever he wants as Americans continue to eat up all the sports content they can get, though their tastes waver between the sports.
You would think that perhaps if franchises are losing money or the sport is losing market share to the other major sports that that could be a reason to get rid of a commissioner. It would make sense after all- if the commissioner’s job is to oversee the league and the league starts to struggle, then like any CEO he is out. But that may be the best part about the modern-day commissioner. READ MORE >>>
By Dave Gilmore, on January 13th, 2012 
41 down, 41 to go. The Capitals 2011-12 season has been at times a callback to the dominance of recent years and at other times a farce nearing the woeful Capitals of the late 1970s. The result? A statistically average club that can’t seem to decide which way it’s trending from one week to the next.
We’ve had a six-goal loss, a six-goal win, and a coaching change. To me, that sums to it up better than any specific analysis, but here’s some of that anyway. READ MORE >>>
By Dave Gilmore, on January 10th, 2012  Tim Tebow is getting help from outside forces. There’s nobody left who disputes this. However, what most people don’t know is that the higher power orchestrating these miraculous plays is actually the tandem of me and my college roommate/best man Jimmy. Every time we talk on the phone and simul-watch a Broncos game, they come back and win. This is not a stretch of the truth for the purposes of writing a column. I will swear on whatever scriptural text you shove in front of me. We are 8-0. Clearly, something is happening here. READ MORE >>>
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