By Zach Wilt, on January 31st, 2012  Michael Irvin might have completely glossed over thirty years of NFL history in Baltimore. The NFL Network analyst chimed in on this week’s most popular topic — no, not the Super Bowl — Peyton Manning’s future in Indianapolis.
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has publicly gone back and forth with franchise quarterback Peyton Manning about respecting the organization’s image. ”I don’t think it’s in a good interested to paint the horseshoe in a negative light,” Irsay said.
Irvin chimed in, “The horseshoe is first? The horseshoe is nothing before Peyton got here.”
Perhaps it was nothing in Indianapolis, but that isn’t the case in Baltimore.
“This horseshoe was garbage without Peyton — it was garbage when he got here and garbage when he left here this season,” he said according to Nate Davis of USA Today.
READ MORE >>>
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.
READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on January 31st, 2012  After spending a season without a quarterbacks coach, the Ravens decided Joe Flacco could use a little love.
The team officially announced on Monday that former Colts head coach Jim Caldwell would be mentoring Flacco. Former Ravens wide receiver and WBAL radio analyst, Qadry Ismail, spent a season with Caldwell in Indianapolis and he thinks that adding Peyton Manning’s former coach will be very beneficial to J-Flaccolicious.
“Jim Caldwell shall enhance your level of play,” Ismail tweeted to Flacco.
He shall, shall he?
Ismail later tweeted that “Caldwell really helped Peyton” during his tenure as the Colts quarterbacks coach from 2002-2008.
The last time the Ravens hired a former head coach to work with Flacco, it didn’t end well. Of course that guy was Jim Zorn.
By Zach Wilt, on January 31st, 2012  Here’s a motto Ravens fans live by: when in doubt, blame it on Kyle Boller.
Back in the 2003 draft, the Ravens selected Boller with the 19th overall pick. The Ravens were so high on the QB out of California (probably because they saw how far he could throw the ball from his knees) that they traded their second round pick in 2003 and first round pick in 2004 to the New England Patriots to get him.
As Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com points out, the Pats used that first round pick in ’04 to draft Vince Wilfork, now a four-time Pro Bowler.
Wilfork registered 74 tackles and two interceptions this season. He leads the Patriots with 2.5 sacks and three quarterback hits during the postseason.
READ MORE >>>
By Mark Brown, on January 30th, 2012  This recap and analysis of WWE’s Monday Night Raw are the personal opinions of the writer. The author of this article is a former promoter, writer, and referee in the wrestling industry. You won’t find analysis as accurate as this anywhere else on the internet.
We’re officially on “The Road to Wrestlemania.” After an exciting Royal Rumble Pay Per View event, what was the fallout on Raw? Who won the Rumble? Who are the current champions? How will the results from the Rumble affect both the current product and Wrestlemania itself? Read on my friends…
WWE Monday Night Raw Results 1/30/12
John Laurinaitis comes down the aisle. He is extremely happy and is sucking up to the fans. He smacks hands with fans around the ring. His job will be reviewed tonight by Triple H. I’m trying to figure out why the emphasis on this show is on the General Manager situation when there is a Royal Rumble winner to celebrate? That should have started the show. The Wrestlemania 28 sign is hung above the ring as the road to Wrestlemania officially begins. Laurinaitis says Triple H is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, and says that he himself did a great job at the Royal Rumble and called the match right down the middle. He puts over the next Pay Per View “Elimination Chamber” and announces the main event to be CM Punk vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz vs. R-Truth vs. Chris Jericho inside the Elimination Chamber. He spits off a couple of matches for tonight including Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk. If that actually happens I will probably pee my pants. Laurinaitis stumbles and bumbles over his words for awhile.
READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on January 30th, 2012  UPDATE 2:20 PM: The Ravens announced on Twitter that it’s a done deal. Jim Caldwell is the team’s new quarterbacks coach.
Think of it as a trade.
The Ravens give the Colts their best coach, defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano, and return they get Indy’s Jim Caldwell, who was fired after a 2-14 season. Awesome.
7:00 AM: ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting (in a suit from a library) that Caldwell met with the Steelers over the weekend and he “plans to join” the Ravens offensive staff. ”Likely as a QB coach,” Schefter tweets.
Could this be the Ravens first step in luring Peyton Manning?
Haha. No. But that’s a fun topic to discuss during a long offseason.
By Zach Wilt, on January 30th, 2012 “That’s my team. That’s my quarterback,” Terrell Owens famously whined.
Out in Hawaii, former Ravens running back Willis McGahee caught some smack talk from a Baltimore fan about Tim Tebow. ”If you had a better quarterback you could have gone further,” the fan yelled to McGahee.
“That’s like saying if they [had] a better kicker they would have won right,” McGahee said back.
Ouch.
By Zach Wilt, on January 30th, 2012  The only person more surprised than Ravens fans that Cam Cameron is back as Baltimore’s offensive coordinator is Cam Cameron.
At 11 o’clock on Friday, Baltimore let out a collective grumble both verbally and on the Twitter as John Harbaugh announced that Cameron would be returning to call the Ravens plays.
Matt Vensel of Baltimore Sun posted some interesting comments from Cam-squared after the announcement. Apparently, Cameron told “some co-workers” that he didn’t believe he’d be back as his contract was due to expire and the Ravens had yet to reach out to him to renew it.
“I called Ozzie and said, ‘Hey, I’m just thrilled to be back,’” Cameron said according to Vensel. “Ozzie said, ‘Cam, in our minds, you were never gone.’
READ MORE >>>
By Edgar Walker, on January 30th, 2012 After an awesome week of basketball in Baltimore, we have major shake-ups in this week’s BSR Top 15. The Basketball Academy was three days of great high school hoops action, as former #1 Dunbar fell, and Baltimore enjoyed several top-notch contests.
This week, Patterson surges back into the top spot in the rankings for the first time since the beginning of the season. The Clippers seem to be hitting their stride, and Saturday night’s 79-72 win over a very talented St. Frances squad showed that. The past seven days also saw two of the three remaining unbeatens in the area drop results, with Arundel holding strong as the only undefeated team in the Charm City metro area.
As will be the case all season, these rankings reward results, taking into account opponent strength and margin of victory/loss. Teams will not be ranked highly because of the hype or publicity surrounding their teams, but rather the consistency and impressiveness of their play. Additionally, because of the nature of these rankings, readers will notice considerable movement in the rankings each week. Rankings are released every Monday.
See past rankings: Preseason||Week 1 || Week 2 || Week 3 || Week 4 || Week 5 || Week 6 || Week 7
READ MORE >>>
By Dave Gilmore, on January 30th, 2012  Time to wipe the board clean. The wounds of the 2011 Ravens may still be fresh, but the seconds are already ticking away until the 2012 Ravens break training camp. While the number of free agent decisions the team needs to make might be minimal in quantity, the re-signing or lack thereof by some key pieces may affect the puzzle greatly. Matt Lund and I broke down every potential new deal and decision not to renew.
If you need to brush up on unrestricted vs. restricted free agency, please feel free to do so and then leave your calls in the comments. (Player ages are in parentheses.)
Skill Positions
———————–
RB Ray Rice (25)
D: If a long-term deal is inevitable for Rice, I’d be happy if the Ravens took care of it now rather than franchising him and waiting a year. I don’t love long-term deals for backs as it obviously exposes the team to much more risk than most positions. Whatever you gotta do, Keep.
M: Absolute no-brainer. It would be in the Ravens best interest to sign Rice to a long-term deal to avoid the hassle of franchising him and also having both he and Joe Flacco as impending free agents in 2013. The guy is your workhorse, and led the NFL in yards from scrimmage this season. He’s worth every penny. Keep.
READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on January 30th, 2012  I didn’t watch a second of the Pro Bowl last night. Why should I? It’s a joke.
I would rather watch a three hour rain delay than the Pro Bowl.
I went on to ESPN.com at 11:30 last night just to see the final score and get a few stats for this post and had to did deep just to find it. Buried underneath Winter X Games coverage, a story on the Mavericks win in over time, Djokovic beating Nadal, the NHL All-Star game and a column about the Giants defense was a headline about that Pro Bowl.
Apparently Ray Lewis had five tackles and Vonta Leach scored a touchdown — that news comes via Aaron Wilson, who I assume was forced to watch the game for his job. Poor guy.
Last year 13.4 million football starved morons watched the Pro Bowl on Fox. I’m sure the numbers will be similar this season. There’s no sense in telling the NFL to kill it, move it, add a skills competition or any of the other crazy ideas people have for the game.
READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on January 28th, 2012  11 years ago today the Ravens won Super Bowl 35 in Tampa Bay 34-7 over the New York Giants.
In some ways it doesn’t seem that long ago…
The Backstreet Boys sang the National Anthem, Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Nelly, Mary J. Blige and *NSYNC performed at Halftime.
…and in others it feels like an eternity ago.
The Ravens were just five years old in Baltimore and while their following was strong, it was nothing like it is today.
If not for a 97-yard kickoff return by Ron Dixon in the third quarter, the Ravens would have been the first team in NFL history to shutout an opponent in the Super Bowl.
It still hurts a little. Rather than a Super Bowl XLII rematch, we in Baltimore would prefer it to revisit that of Super XXXV rematch.
11 years. 4 seasons removed from Brian Billick. Put the guy in the freaking Ring of Honor.
By Zach Wilt, on January 28th, 2012  It’s over. It’s all over.
As a Towson alumnus I’m happy to report that a winning streak has officially begun for the Tigers mens basketball team.
Towson’s 41-game losing streak — 0-22 this season — ended against UNC Wilmington at the Towson Center on Saturday. Towson defeated the Seahawks 66-61.
Here at BSR we had planned a nice little “this blog has operated x days since Towson last won a basketball game” sign… Not anymore
In the time between Towson’s wins, Kim Kardashian was both married and divorced, Osama Bin Laden was killed and Occupy Wall Street began.
The Tigers didn’t get a win in all of 2011.
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 27th, 2012  Sergio Kindle might be the exception to the saying “In Ozzie We Trust.”
The second year linebacker was the Ravens first pick in the 2009 draft, but he didn’t see the field until 2011 after he missed an entire season recovering from a fractured skull that he suffered falling down two flights of stairs.
The Ravens kept Kindle on their roster and worked with him this season. John Harbaugh answered few questions about Kindle in his Monday press conferences as he was inactive 14 weeks of the regular season.
Ryan Mink of BaltimoreRavens.com gave an update on Kindle for the fans that wondered what happened this season.
In short, the Ravens report that Kindle struggled learning the playbook and he worked closely with outside linebackers coach Ted Monachino to learn the team’s scheme.
READ MORE >>>
|
|
|
Michael Irvin might have completely glossed over thirty years of NFL history in Baltimore. The NFL Network analyst chimed in on this week’s most popular topic — no, not the Super Bowl — Peyton Manning’s future in Indianapolis.
Monday Night Raw Results 1/30 CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan, Undertaker Returns
We’re officially on “The Road to Wrestlemania.” After an exciting Royal Rumble Pay Per View event, what was the fallout on Raw? Who won the Rumble? Who are the current champions? How will the results from the Rumble affect both the current product and Wrestlemania itself? Read on my friends…
WWE Monday Night Raw Results 1/30/12
John Laurinaitis comes down the aisle. He is extremely happy and is sucking up to the fans. He smacks hands with fans around the ring. His job will be reviewed tonight by Triple H. I’m trying to figure out why the emphasis on this show is on the General Manager situation when there is a Royal Rumble winner to celebrate? That should have started the show. The Wrestlemania 28 sign is hung above the ring as the road to Wrestlemania officially begins. Laurinaitis says Triple H is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, and says that he himself did a great job at the Royal Rumble and called the match right down the middle. He puts over the next Pay Per View “Elimination Chamber” and announces the main event to be CM Punk vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. The Miz vs. R-Truth vs. Chris Jericho inside the Elimination Chamber. He spits off a couple of matches for tonight including Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk. If that actually happens I will probably pee my pants. Laurinaitis stumbles and bumbles over his words for awhile.
READ MORE >>>