The fallout from Saturday’s controversial battle between the Colorado Buffaloes and intrastate rival Colorado State continues.
The aftermath of a dirty and blatant late hit by Rams defensive back Henry Blackburn resulted in Buffs two-way star and 2022 top overall recruit Travis Hunter being injured.
On Monday it was announced that the dynamic Hunter will miss at least three weeks as he recovers from a lacerated liver. Blackburn was penalized for the hit but not ejected as many believed he should’ve been.
With Hunter’s injury sure to cost him at least the next three games, fans and media everywhere have been clamoring for Blackburn to be sidelined until Hunter is healthy and back playing.
That isn’t likely to happen, and according to his head coach Jay Norvell, from his vantage point he didn’t do anything wrong.
Norvell Gives Lame Excuse For Blackburn’s Dirty Hit
The cheap shot by Blackburn was so late and egregious that even LeBron James, a former All-State receiver in high school himself, tweeted that the hit was “blatant and “uncalled for.”
But Norvell, who got the week going with an indirect shot at Coach Prime about taking off his hat and glasses when talking to grown-ups, seemed to not have much more to say when asked about the incident in his postgame presser.
“I mean, I don’t know, he hit him on the sideline. It was hard for me to see over there. I can’t answer that.”
On Monday, Norvell added more to his explanation pretty much saying it happens sometimes and they don’t teach bush league antics. In other words he considers it a bang-bang play.
Hunter will definitely miss marquee matchups versus Oregon and USC, but as Coach Prime told reporters following Saturday’s tilt, they’re going to focus on getting Travis healthy.
“First thing I’ve heard is he will be out a few weeks, but we gotta take care of him. He’ll probably want to be out two weeks, but his health is more important than the game.”
Hunter says he holds no ill will towards Blackburn, while addressing the incident during a live stream on Monday night.
“It’s football. At the end of the day stuff like that is going to happen,” Hunter said. “I just stay humble. He did what he was supposed to do. It’s football. Something bad is going to happen on the field sooner or later. We just gotta get up and fight again. That’s what I try to do. Get up and fight.
“Good thing the doctors spotted me because if there was no doctors there I would have still been out there playing. But I’m thankful for everyone who helped me out there.”
Blackburn Receives Death Threats
Per reports, Blackburn’s and his mom’s numbers, as well his family’s home address and his campus address, were leaked via the internet prior to the ending of the double overtime thriller. That led to the two receiving death threats.
CSU athletic director Joe Parker spoke with ESPN about the matter on Monday.
“We’re very concerned about our player’s safety ,as Henry and his family have continued to receive these threats,” Parker said. “Henry never intended to put anyone in harm’s way on the football field. It’s not what we teach or coach. We hope that the irrational vitriol directed at Henry stops immediately.”
Norvell seemed to piggyback his boss’s comments saying they don’t coach that type of football.
If there’s any silver lining, Hunter himself says it’s football and laying him out with a vicious hit is something he says that football players are supposed to do. So the dynamic two-way force has no hard feelings and he’s just going to stay humble.
Houston Rockets guard Kevin Porter, Jr. is going through a strange time. He was arrested in New York on Sept. 11, at the Millenium Hilton Hotel and charged with assault and strangulation against his girlfriend, Kysre Gondrezick. However, now her lawyer is saying that the charges are untrue, and his innocence against the inflammatory accusations stands in the balance.
The details of the incident sound horrifying.
Per reports, the 23-year-old Porter allegedly punched and choked the 26-year-old Gondrezick in their hotel room until she couldn’t breathe. Per Porter’s Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment records, she reportedly ran out of the room and was discovered by hotel employees covered in blood in the hallway and bruised. Police received a 911 call about the incident.
Where it gets confusing is that police report that Gondrezick said to authorities that Porter hit her multiple times with a closed fist and that she had a gash above her right eye that was inches long, per Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Mirah Curzer.
Now, her attorney is saying something completely different.
“Statements that were attributed to her were not her words,” said Gondrezick’s lawyer, Robert Hantman, to Fox News. “She says he didn’t strike her repeatedly. He’s a big guy. If he hit her repeatedly, she’d have a broken jaw. According to her, she wasn’t being strangled. That was an exaggeration. She doesn’t want the public to think that what was said by the government were her words.”
According to a forensic pathologist who reviewed the information via Fox News Digital, Gondrezick has a congenital defect that was mistaken for a cracked vertebra.
“This was a condition she was born with that had little effect on her and was not a result of fresh trauma,” said forensic pathologist Michael Baden.
Ironically, Gondrezick’s sister, Kalabrya Haskins, the widow of late NFL quarterback Dwayne Haskins, did a post to her Instagram story that is now gone.
If you think you gone touch my sister & not get touched. Count ya f***ing days,” she posted. “Better hope and pray you’ll be able to walk again let alone dribble.”
However, the attorney is saying that the details of the altercation are baffling. He doesn’t know why they were fighting in the first place since they went out that night, with Gondrezick returning to her hotel room afterward.
Porter didn’t have a room key, per her attorney. However, security let him into the room.
“There was an altercation, which was over very fast. Everything happened very fast,” Hantman said to Fox News.
After being released on $100,000 bail, Hantman has to return to court on Oct. 16. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke on the incident, saying, “One thing I learned over many years of working on these cases is not to assume anything here and not just rely on headlines,” he said at a press conference. The league is investigating the claims.
Gondrezick is a WNBA free agent who previously played for the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky.
Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders has catapulted Power Five college football into a higher strata of national attention in just three games. Aside from the three straight wins, two being at their home field, and the bombastic confidence displayed by the entire Sanders family, something else might not be immediately recognizable to the uninitiated.
To be frank: Coach Prime is turning a Rockies PWI into a Saturday HBCU homecoming-level turnup.
The biggest trick Coach Prime ever played on college sports was that he was coming to a PWI. Instead, he brought the HBCU ethos to the mountains, minus the majority-Black student body enrollment piece.
What is so immediately recognizable about the energy is that it starts early in the week with the anticipation of the big game on Saturday. The hype and enthusiasm surrounding the game is insatiable, and the drip that encompasses the Coach Prime aura is nothing less than a streetwear fashion show.
Imagine the sleepy town of Boulder, Colorado, where the Buffs turned in a paltry 1-11 record last year. There was no interest from the commercial rap community in the town, whose neighbor, Denver, gets all the hype in the region and not for the performance of new quarterback Russell Wilson.
Fast-forward to the Coach Prime era, a heavily used transfer portal that shuttled old players out and new ones in, and you have the makings of a face lift for the city. Now, even when the game isn’t until late evening on the East Coast, you have the Saturday Big Noon game day commentary team exhorting about the Buffs home games. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was on hand to give Deion Sanders his flowers, and rapper Lil’ Wayne donned a custom Buffs jersey.
Later, Wayne would open the show with an on-field performance to solidify the enormity of the moment for the world.
Coach Prime would bring out his mother to rally the troops and drive home because the rivalry game against Colorado State was personal. After all, CSU coach Jay Norvell indirectly disparaged Coach Prime’s mother when inplying he wasn’t raised right for wearing a hat and sunglasses indoors.
Why did he do that? All it did was make Prime bring out his mom to tell the team to “kick ass.”
Later, after the hard-fought game, which saw NBA stars like Chauncey Billups and Kyle Lowry in the suites with rapper Offset on the sidelines, Prime had Young Dolph protege Key Glock in the locker room rapping in the middle of the celebrating team.
The entire scene is like the best homecoming experience anyone ever had at an HBCU homecoming. Expect it every Saturday home game, and now Boulder, Colorado, will always be different.
Alabama high school band director Johnny Mims was tased and arrested after he failed to stop his group from playing after a high school football game, according to police. He’s charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest.
Mims is the band director at Minor High School in the Birmingham suburb of Adamsville, and last Thursday night following the football game between Minor and Jackson-Olin High School, police were allegedly trying to get the stadium cleared and instructed both band directors to stop the bands from playing so spectators wouldn’t linger.
Police say the Jackson-Olin band stopped performing, but Mims disregarded officers and told his students to keep playing.
Police officers, allegedly accompanied by school security guards, went to arrest Mims for disorderly conduct but he got into a scuffle with them when he refused to place his hands behind his back and shoved an officer. One of the officers shocked Mims with a stun gun.
“Minor’s band director did not comply with multiple officers’ requests to stop his band from performing, [instead] he instructed his band to continue performing,” Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald, a department spokesperson, said in a statement.
“A BPD sergeant was among the officers who attempted to get the band director to stop his band from performing. During the officers’ interaction with the Minor’s band director, the decision was made to place him in custody.
“BPD officers attempted to take the band director into custody for disorderly conduct when a physical altercation ensued between the band director, Birmingham City Schools System security personnel and BPD officers.”
After the arrest, Birmingham Fire and Rescue personnel treated Mims at the stadium and BPD later took him to a nearby hospital as part of standard protocol.
When Mims was discharged from the hospital he was taken to Birmingham City Jail where he was booked in and then bonded out.
Jefferson County School Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin declined to comment on the incident last Friday, as he is in the fact-finding process.
“I urge everyone not to jump to conclusions,” Gonsoulin said.
Because a stun gun was used, BPD’s Internal Affairs Division will conduct an investigation.
We don’t know what caused Mims to allegedly disobey the police directive to stop playing or whether it was necessary to use a stun gun in this situation.
But in an environment where kids are supposed to be the main focus, poor adult behavior takes center stage.
After a week of back-and-forth, the Colorado Buffaloes and Colorado State Rams presented college football fans with one of the best “Rocky Mountain Showdown” matchups in the rivalry’s long and storied history.
In the end it was the Buffaloes overcoming a 28-17 deficit in the fourth quarter to force overtime, and then win it 43-35 in double OT.
Needing the long drive to avoid an upset at the hands of the Rams, Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders did his thing, and following the game he told reporters this.
Sanders Channeled His Inner Tom Brady
“All I was thinking was Brady mode,” Sanders said after the game. “That’s it, simple. Brady mode, that’s it. They left too much time out there.”
Even Brady himself got in on the matter, as the seven-time Super Bowl champion posted this to his Instagram page:
“I just want to go Shedeur mode at some point in my life.”
Sanders heroics came after his dad and head coach, Deion Sanders, told him this before he took the field for the drive.
“Do what you do,” Sanders said on the ESPN telecast. “I’ve been saying it since he was a kid. … I’m proud of my kids, but I’m proud of this team.”
The play of early season Heisman candidate Shedeur Sanders once again stood out, as the junior in his first season at a Power Five program led his team on a 98-yard scoring drive and game-tying two-point conversion with the game hanging in the balance. Sanders, who’s been red-hot since week 1, completed 38 of 47 passes for 347 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.
If Sanders was looking for his Heisman moment, that 98-yard drive was all the voters need. So far, through three games, Sanders looks the part. He still has a long road ahead and some much stiffer competition on the horizon. One bad week can take a Heisman favorite and send him spiraling out of contention.
Sanders accomplished the comeback without the services of multi-threat Travis Hunter, who was injured on a high hit and taken to a hospital with a medical issue.
What’s Next For The Undefeated Buffaloes?
Next up for Colorado is road trip to Autzen Stadium to face the No. 10 Oregon Ducks and their Heisman candidate quarterback Bo Nix. That matchup will be followed with a prime time battle with the No. 5 USC Trojans and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.
Shedeur calls himself “GROWN,” and after his start to the 2023 season, 107 of 136 for 1,251 yards, 10 touchdowns and one interception, he’s definitely that.
But he’ll need to be the adult in the room these next couple weeks.
It’s that time of year. NBA training camps open up on Sept. 26 and the first preseason games begin on Oct. 5. As we gear up for what should be a great season, what are the biggest storylines in the league with camp just ahead?
Or as the league calls it, “player participation policy.” Words are important, and you should pay close attention to them.
The league is working on securing a new broadcast deal, which means they need to demonstrate to potential partners how valuable the property is. In this league that means star players must play, at all costs.
Smart teams that have older star players and have developed a trust with those players and the medical and performance teams, will find ways around the policy for their players to get the rest they need.
Teams that don’t prioritize sports science, work in concert with their players, and act haphazardly will get fined.
According to report,s Lillard will not report to any training camp other than for the Heat, his preferred trade destination, or his current team the Portland Trail Blazers.
Lillard and his agent Aaron Goodwin made a trade demand of the Blazers this offseason that hasn’t yet come to fruition. The Blazers are holding out for a better package, so either the Heat find a way to sweeten the deal or Lillard will be in the Pacific Northwest. He is under contract through the 2026-27 season.
It will be interesting to see how both Lillard and the Blazers play this out publicly through the media and how it impacts the on-court play.
Harden sent shock waves across the league over the summer while he was in Asia when he called his former buddy, Daryl Morey, the current Sixers president of basketball operations, a liar. Harden said he would never be a part of an organization that Morey is running.
Fast-forward and he’s opted into the final year of his deal and his trade demand to the Los Angeles Clippers has not been fulfilled.
“[The Clippers] tried to trade for James Harden, and that deal didn’t happen,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on “The Hoop Collective.” “And from what I understand, it was the Clippers who said, ‘OK, there’s no deal here. We’re gonna move on.’ And while I assume that they could certainly make a deal midseason, I assume that this is what they’re gonna go with.”
Morey is known to be comfortable with atmospheres and situations being uncomfortable. He expects Harden to report to camp and fulfill the final year of his contract. A trade will only be made if Morey believes he is getting back significant value.
With Joel Embiid appearing to be non-committal about his future in Philadelphia, the team breaking in a new head coach, things will be very tense this season.
For different reasons, this is a pivotal season for both young men. Let’s start with Morant.
On the court he’s brilliant, though still has room to get better. He needs to improve his three-point shooting and his floater. Still, he’s a two-time All-Star, an All-NBA selection and the face of the Memphis Grizzlies franchise.
But the biggest concern is his maturity away from the court. He was involved in numerous incidents over the past couple years involving guns and negative behavior. He’ll be serving a 25-game suspension to start the season.
Let’s hope that he has begun to get the help he needs to manage his life better and continues to do so.
Williamson has barely played during his four seasons in the league. Despite his limited availability due to injury, he’s still a two-time All-Star and when he does play one of the best players in the league.
He is beginning the first year of a five year $197 million contract extension with the New Orleans Pelicans. The team would like to see him play at least 65 games this season. Something he has yet to do in his young career.
There have been questions about his diet, commitment to his body when he’s injured, the influence of his family in his decision-making, and his personal relationship choices.
It’s a lot for a young man who is only 23. But he needs to take control of his life in all aspects and prioritize what matters most. All eyes will be on him this season.
It’s not easy winning an NBA championship. Eleven teams have yet to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy as we are set to begin the 78th NBA season.
Teams have to be very good and they need luck. In league history the NBA title has been successfully defended 23 times. The last team was the 2018 Golden State Warriors.
We’ll be able to tell early how committed Denver is to repeating. It won’t necessarily be by having the best record by Christmas. But how they perform against the league’s other elite teams will tell us a lot.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders is the greatest player in Detroit Lions franchise history and arguably the greatest running back in NFL history.
The former Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma State enjoyed a great NFL career but abruptly retired prior to the 1999 season.
At the time of his retirement the dynamic Sanders had rushed for 15,269 yards and 99 rushing touchdowns and was gunning to take over the league’s all-time rushing mark from former Chicago Bears and Jackson State legend Walter Payton.
To this day, Sanders remains an icon in and around Detroit and still ranks fourth all-time in NFL rushing yards. To honor Sanders the Lions unveiled a statue of the legendary running back over the weekend, making him the first and likely the last player in franchise history to have a statue of themselves in the heart of downtown Detroit.
Sanders, who’s always been a man of few words, was extremely grateful for the franchise immortalizing him in a way that not many athletes of any sport get recognized.
Sanders Thankful To Receive Flowers While Still Here
Many athletes don’t ever receive the recognition they deserve, and in many cases those that do, don’t get it until they are no longer with us. Sanders expressed his gratitude in his ceremonial speech.
“You heard the saying that you give a person their flowers while they’re around,” Sanders said during the ceremony. “I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon, I’m just saying that saying … but if this statue could be used with that analogy, then I would have to say this is one heck of a bouquet for me, so thanks a lot, I appreciate it.”
Sanders, says he truly the admired the attention to detail on the statue … beginning with the cutback juke move that became synonymous his running style.
“Little things like the cut-off gloves that I wore and obviously the very alert eyes,” Sanders said at the ceremony. “I haven’t had a chance to really soak it in, but those were some of the things I noticed and obviously sort of the pose is like I’m in action.”
During the ceremony a video of congratulatory messages from the likes of fellow Hall of Famers Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith and Peyton Manning played. Even Mr. Detroit Piston himself, “Gentleman” Joe Dumars, left a message.
It was a glorious day honoring an absolute legend.
Sanders Announces Upcoming Documentary
The 1997 NFL MVP and ten-time All-Pro recently announced a documentary titled “Bye Bye Barry” that’s set to be released in November. In it, Sanders will reportedly give the real reason he ultimately decided to hang up the cleats while still in the prime of his career.
While given little tidbits about it in the past, Sanders has never really broke it down, so this should be interesting.
The 2023 NFL season is in full swing, and we’re back to rank the top melanated signal callers in the business.
Geno Smith, Seahawks
Smith got paid in the offseason, then the former West Virginia Mountaineers star came out and laid an egg in Week 1. With his Seahawks team facing an inauspicious 0-2 start, the gunslinger rose to the occasion, going 32 of 41 for 328 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions in a 37-31 overtime win over the Detroit Lions.
It’s the second consecutive season that the Hawks won a road game at the Lions in overtime.
Last season’s 48-45-win catapulted Seattle into the final playoff spot in the NFC by virtue of the head-to-head victory over the Lions.
Lamar Jackson, Ravens
After an uneven performance in a brand-new offense in Week 1, the dynamic Jackson bounced back with an efficient 24 of 33 for 237 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions in Week 2.
Jackson also rushed for 54 big yards, including two game-ending first downs. Even bigger is the Ravens got a key division win in Cincinnati, the team who’s won the AFC North the past two seasons.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh raved about his franchise player in his postgame interview.
“Lamar played winning football. He got into a rhythm early, hit some passes and made some huge plays throwing the ball down the field.”
Dak Prescott, Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys defense is something serious, holding its first two opponents to a combined 10 points. With that type of effort, all Prescott has to do is not make mistakes. On Sunday he did more than that, going 31 of 38 for 255 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions in a 30-10 over the listless and QB-less New York Jets. That’s the type of performance Cowboys brass and fans wanna see when it matters most.
Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs
One week after watching his receivers drop eight passes in a season-opening loss to the Lions, Mahomes guided his Chiefs to a big road win in Jacksonville to avoid an 0-2 start. The reigning NFL and Super Bowl MVP was solid, going 29 of 41 for 305 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
He also rushed for another 30 yards, including two big first downs in the final stanza. Getting all-world tight end Travis Kelce back on offense and dominant and versatile defensive lineman Chris Jones was imperative, and both made a huge difference.
Josh Dobbs, Cardinals
The journeyman who arrived in Arizona just 13 days prior to the season has been solid both weeks. Last week he fought hard, coming up just short in a 20-16 loss to the Commanders. This week his team jumped out 20-0 against the Giants, only to lose 31-28 in the final seconds. In the game Dobbs was good, passing for 228 yards and one touchdown while also rushing for 41 yards and another touchdown. Wins will be hard to come by in Arizona this season, but it won’t be for lack of effort from the gritty Dobbs.
Honorable Mention:
Jordan Love, Packers — Six touchdowns and zero interceptions this season.
C.J. Stroud, Texans — Passed for 384 yards, albeit in a loss, Stroud showed some real promise.
Desmond Ridder, Falcons — Team is 2-0 and the former Cincinnati Bearcats starter is playing winning football.
On Saturday, Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffaloes made a statement about resilience under pressure. After an impressive 80-yard interception return by Shilo Sanders in the first quarter to put the first points on the game board, the Buffs trailed their in-state rivals Colorado State for most of the game until the end of pivotal fourth quarter.
Two OTs later, they dredged a win through the muck that Colorado State threw at them all game. The physicality that CSU brought sent two-way phenom sophomore Travis Hunter to the showers early, compliments of a “dirty” hit that drew an unnecessary roughness penalty. Sanders’ son Shilo contributed with a clutch pick six and Prime’s other son, Shedeur, clinched the win with an 18-yard pass to Michael Harrison in double OT and a two-point conversion to pour salt in the wound.
If you weren’t a believer before, now is the perfect time to recognize the tenacious brilliance of the new Buffs.
Many celebrities like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, rappers Lil’ Wayne and Offset, and NBA star Kyle Lowry were in attendance. Even “The Juice, “O.J. Simpson has jumped on the “Sko Buffs” bandwagon to Boulder.
“Okay, Deion Sanders. Look, I think you rate a great coach by what he does in a tight game,” Simpson said in a video on social media. “Not when he’s running away from teams because he’s got too much speed and too much talent for the opponent, but when he’s in a knockdown drag-out game like they were in last night. That’s how you rate a great player, and you could say Colorado State was not a good team.
“Wait a minute. When USC plays UCLA it doesn’t matter what the records are,” he continued. “When Ohio State plays Michigan, when Southern plays Grambling, it doesn’t matter what the records are. Those games, [it’s] a shootout between rival games. so Colorado State and Colorado, knew it would be a rivalry game and it would probably be a tough game. And Deion Sanders came through in a big way with his team.”
However, the next few weeks take Colorado to the deeper end of the Pac-12 pool, and weeks 4-8 bring on Oregon, USC, Arizona State, Stanford, and UCLA. The CSU rivalry was only an appetizer if being tested was a meal. The rest of the schedule is the whole Pacific Conference plate.
“We all cheer for Deion and Colorado,” Simpson continued. “I cheer for them until two weeks from now. … They go against USC, and as much as I love Deion, and I’ve loved him his whole career as a player, and now I’m amazed at how good of a coach he is … two weeks from now against USC, Deion, you’re going down. I’m just saying.”
USC and reigning Heisman -winner Caleb Williams come to Boulder on September 30th for what is sure to be the most watched gaem of the college football season to date.
Simpson, of course, is one of the greatest running backs in college and NFL history. “Juice” won USC’s second Heisman while setting the NCAA single-season rushing mark in 1968.
Now is the time that Colorado Buffs believers’ faith will be tested as the Colorado congregation will face extreme tribulations. And some fans whose allegiance will run hot and cold all season.
The New York Jets came into the 2023 NFL season with some serious Super Bowl aspirations. In many ways those aspirations went up in smoke when QB Aaron Rodgers was lost for the season after just four offensive plays.
Rodgers, the four-time NFL MVP and one-time Super Bowl champion who was acquired via trade from the Green Bay Packers in April, ruptured his Achilles, ending his 2023 season and putting his playing career in serious doubt.
The news is just devastating for a Jets team that believes it has the makings of a Super Bowl contender in all three phases (offense, defense and special teams). But without Rodgers at the helm, the likelihood of making a run in January seems unlikely.
That’s why current ESPN NFL analyst and former Jets linebacker Bart Scott thinks the team should look to acquire Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.
With the Vikings beginning this season 0-2 after a 13-win season in 2022, Scott believes now is the time for the Jets to make a move for the 35-year-old who’s on an expiring contract. On a recent episode of ESPN’s “Get Up,” the outspoken Scott said the Jets should offer a first-round draft pick as a sweetener in any trade for Cousins.
“You got to throw that first in. They won’t turn it down.’ Are we all in? Then screw that first-round draft pick. If they’re all in and we think if we get Kirk Cousins, we become a Super Bowl contender again, is it not worth the first-round pick? They’re probably going to be in the twenties if Kirk Cousins comes and plays at a high level.”
Longtime Jets fan and host of “Get Up” Mike Greenberg piggybacked those sentiments, saying, “Im all in! Let’s do this, let’s make this happen!”
Sounds good, and Cousins would be a huge upgrade over 2021 No. 2 overall pick Zach Wilson, who’s now the starter. But there are a couple of sticking points that may prevent that from happening.
Packers Own Jets’ First-Round Pick In 2024
As part of the deal to acquire Rodgers the Jets agreed to send their 2024 first-round pick to the Packers if Rodgers played 65 percent of the team’s snaps. Since that won’t be happening, the pick shifts to a second-rounder.
Meaning if the Jets have to give up a first-round pick to acquire Cousins, the Packers would have to rework the trade deal for Rodgers prior to the new NFL calendar year which isn’t until March 2024.
It’s not brain surgery, but the Jets would need the Packers to help them acquire Cousins if the Vikes want a first-rounder in next years draft in return.
The waiting game begins in NYC, because Zach Wilson isn’t the answer.
Something about Terrell Owens and “First Take” hosts creates a toxic environment, but instead of his usual adversary in former F.T. co-host Skip Bayless, it is now the face of ESPN, Stephen A. Smith.
A clip of Smith on “The Joe Budden Podcast” keeping it very real on why his former co-host, Max Kellerman, was dismissed from the show went viral.
“I didn’t want to go from No. 1 to No. 2 when Skip [Bayless] left,” Smith said on the podcast. “I wasn’t having that. That s**t wasn’t gonna happen. You weren’t an athlete, and you weren’t a journalist. And the absence of the two components left people wondering ‘Why should we listen to you?'”
Smith implies that Kellerman got dismissed to make way for the chemistry he felt with his carousel of analysts like Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, Michael Irvin, Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears, and more, up to the current co-host Shannon Sharpe. Now that Smith kept it honest, the internet took sides, and some inferred that Kellerman was let go from “First Take” because Terrell Owens drove a wedge between the two over Colin Kaepernick.
Three years ago, when Kaepernick had a polarizing NFL workout, many felt that Smith was not supportive, including Owens, who said live on the air, “Max almost seems blacker than you, Stephen A.”
At that time, Smith was highly offended at the comment, but the smoke seemed to have cleared until its revival on “X,” formerly known as Twitter. When an “X” user named @JayBabyEars reposted the clip with Owens making what he then called a “tongue-in-cheek” comment, Owens reposted it with the comment, “FACTS!!!!!!”
Smith saw the slight and felt the need to let Owens know how he felt about the resurgence of the beef.
“Now….as for this dude, that’s an entirely different story,” Smith posted. “You know how I feel about your sorry ass @terrellowens and you know why! You should thank your Heavenly Father I haven’t zeroed in on you with the trifling sh-t you tried to pull. Tell folks to ask ESPN what your desperate ass tried to pull. Keep on talking. Eventually, you’ll expose yourself!#REALFACTS”
Smith kept the threats going.
“Or…….maybe I’ll just dedicate the entire Stephen A. Smith Show/Podcast on YouTube this Monday to all the things you tried to do behind the scenes — to BROTHERS — over the years while claiming someone is more of a Brother than others. Let me thing about that over the next 24 hours!!!!#SickOfTHIS.#Enough”
T.O. is never one to back down from a fight and he responded in kind and let the world know that the two have seen each other and nothing transpired.
“Now Stephen A…Ask me if I’m scared?!” Owens posted. “I thank God every day or I at least try to but do what you do best. I’m not worried. You don’t have to make some bold attempt to ‘expose me’ because I have NOTHING to hide. You’re mad because of the advice of my attorney after we filed against ESPN because on air without my consent you shared our text conversation. I’m not sure that constitutes as desperate but enlighten us all.
“So my boy, hone in on me. I’m good. I’m blessed and God got me! You’re still salty about that interview I did with you and Max a few years back and I said what I said and today I’m still #TeamMax. Got that man fired! That’s messed up. You saw me in Colorado you should’ve told me about my sorry ass then.”
“Behind what scenes???! Again, Man I’m NOT WORRIED because I stand on my character and who I am. You better come with some FACTS and not this hearsay and anonymous sources because that’s not gonna fly.”
If the beef between the two will unfold like Owens’ epic back and forth with Skip Bayless, the sports world should be prepared for a petty show like none other.
The New York Giants and New York Jets share MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Prior to the 2010 move to 82,500-seat stadium (largest in the NFL), the neighboring NFL franchises shared Giants Stadium, which was adjacent to MetLife Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands. The teams have always played on artificial turf and are two of the 16 NFL teams that use the surface.
But in the wake of the season-ending Achilles tear that New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered on Monday night, the stadium’s turf has become a hot topic. So much that former New York Giants legend Eli Manning even spoke on it. The two-time Super Bowl champion’s comments were in favor of using the surface.
In an interview with Front Office Sports, Manning, who played on the surface his entire career, explained why he felt the playing surface was not a factor in Rodgers’ demise.
“The turf gives you a reliable field all the time,” Manning said in Front Office Sports Today. “The Giants played in the same stadium in a big rainstorm the night before. If you have to play on that on Monday night on grass, it would be ripped up.”
“I don’t think the turf had a factor in that injury,” he said.
During the offseason the turf at MetLife Stadium was replaced with a new surface, and Buffalo Bills star offensive lineman Dion Dawkins says he felt the difference.
“I did mention on the field that it felt way better,” Dawkins told reporters. “I don’t know what they did, but it felt way better. The turf feels a lot better because the old turf was horrible. But it feels good.”
Dawkins comments didn’t stop the NFLPA from recommending that the league replace all turf surfaces with grass playing surfaces as soon as next season.
MetLife Stadium has been the scene for other season-ending injuries in the past, including a gruesome one to Niners star edge rusher and reigning DPOY Nick Bosa. In fact, Bosa and then-teammate Solomon Thomas were lost for the season in the same game there in 2020. Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard also tore his ACL there in 2022.
This story seems to be growing legs, so we’ll what see comes from it.
Former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch once took the term Super Bowl hangover to another level. Thanks in part to Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson’s famous Super Bowl blunder, one cognac brand birthed a legendary moment with Beast Mode.
Lynch went on Kevin Hart’s “Cold As Balls” shows and revealed that in 2015, after the Seattle Seahawks’ loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 49, Lynch and company went to an unnamed “resort” for an after-party and ran through unbelievable amounts of Hennessy. But anyone who knows about Lynch knows that his story might be true.
“So they had this little resort for us,” Lynch said. “I’m talking about, we blew that motherf—er down, I’m talking about the whole resort. Hennessy did some sh-t for me. They probably gave me, I think it was 76 cases of Hennessy, and I think it was probably like 12 bottles in each case.”
That is an unreal amount of cognac to consume quickly. But after the tragedy that Marshawn Lynch had to endure at the 1-yard line in that Super Bowl, Lynch would do anything he could to forget that.
When down 28-24 with 27 seconds left in the game, The Seattle Seahawks famously elected to throw the ball at the 1-yard line instead of handing the ball off to one of the most formidable power backs that the NFL has ever produced. Of course, Russell Wilson’s pass was intercepted by Malcolm Butler, which led him to become a Super Bowl hero, and coach Pete Carroll faced scrutiny that has followed him for the rest of his career.
“The play called … you know, the pick, damn,” Lynch said. “I come off the sideline and in my mind, I’m confused, and I’m walking by Pete, I’m just laughing at him like, ‘Bro, what the …,'” Lynch stated regarding his immediate reaction following the game-ending interception.
Lynch detailed a chance meeting with Lenny Kravitz, the halftime performer, after the Super Bowl en route to his Hennessy-fueled night after that upsetting defeat.
For anyone guessing how much Hennessy Beast Mode drank, CBS estimates that 76 cases of Hennessy equate to 912 bottles, and the number of cases he claims he drank, 15, would equate to 180 bottles of Hennessy. While that is humanly impossible to do, Lynch has a deep passion for Hennessy. That one-time Super Bowl champion told Peyton Manning in 2020 that he would take shots of Hennessy before his games as a superstitious pregame ritual.
But while Lynch is known to have a good time with his Hennessy, he was also arrested last year for suspected drunken driving in Las Vegas and recently received a court date for November. He was arrested after they found him drunk and asleep in a damaged luxury car, and he told police that he stole the vehicle.
Lynch’s carefree, unfiltered Bay Area-influenced personality is gold for television and media, and we love the antics he partakes in. However, it might not be in his best interest to be around tons of alcohol.
Still, there’s no way he took down 180 bottles of Hennessy in one night, but one could bet their life savings that all of those bottles are long gone.
Deion Sanders’s transformation into Coach Prime has been a journey that has taken him to the HBCU coaching spectrum of the SWAC Conference from Jackson, Mississippi, and now to the Pac-12 in Boulder, Colorado. From the beginning, Prime has delivered his gospel that God has called him to elevate Black coaching and provide increased opportunities both on and off the field for student-athletes choosing the pigskin.
However, his early success in his first year as the head coach of the Buffaloes has already created whispers of a potential future on the sidelines in the NFL. For those curious about how high his coaching ambitions go, Prime, as usual, has an answer full of conviction.
“I would start with 53 and come out of the locker room at halftime with about 38,” Sanders said on “The Rich Eisen Show.” “I love college. I love that the young men are still impressionable,” Sanders elaborated, his passion palpable. “They’re not so financially wealthy that they can’t hear you. At the next level, some of these guys make so much money they can’t hear. They can’t hear or they can’t see the things that they need to see and hear.
“I would have a hard time motivating a man that makes upwards of 20 and 30 and sometimes 40 million dollars to go out there and do your job. I got a problem with that.” Sanders said.
An NFL coaching job is definitively not in Sanders’s future. College football is a love supreme that has come full circle in the Rocky Mountains, and Sanders couldn’t be happier with his calling.
“I absolutely love it. You know me, I’m a Southern guy with Southern swag,” Sanders continued. “I would have never fathomed that I would be here in Colorado, but thank God that God chose this place for me. I love every minute of it, the fan base that we are creating as well, the support, the city, the young men that we brought inside this locker room, the coaching staff; everyone has been A-1 man.”
For Sanders, it is not just about on-field wins, although he is competitive and responds in kind to opposing teams who make it “personal.” However, his affinity for the college ranks extends beyond X’s and O’s. It’s about building up men.
“I encourage them in the Morning Message,” Sanders continued. “It’s about: if you’re a person that’s willing to change because of the attention, that means you’ve never had attention, and you ain’t built for this. You’re built to be on a seesaw, you’re up and down, you’re going to only go up when the weight is on, and you go down when the weight is off.
“These kids understand, and we influence them so much emotionally and mentally and psychologically on the trappings of life if you don’t keep the main thing the main thing. We achieved the highest GPA in school history for the football team this spring. I know 85% of them aren’t going pro, so we focus on the academics, and we focus on getting them to the next level with their degree.”
The collegiate ranks will never be the same. Coach Prime has decided to stay in the game.
Minnesota Vikings fans are not taking their Week 2 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles well and have ventured into the racial zone against one of their players. Vikings running back Alexander Mattison received racially disparaging messages via DM after the 34-28 loss in the City of Brotherly Love.
Mattison said over 60 people sent him “disgustingly disrespectful” messages, some being racial, and he displayed them on his Instagram Story.
“SMFH THIS IS NOT OK. YALL MIGHT WONDER WHY I POST THIS. PEEP THE NEXT ONE FIRST..”
The subsequent message reveals were venomously toxic.
“Hey n****r do you know how to hold onto a gun and pull the trigger I mean give it a try cause you clearly can’t hold on to a football which is you’re PROFESSIONAL CARRER so try something new please,” IG user @georgefenny23 sent Mattison.
The pressure is on Mattison after taking on the Vikings’ starting running back job since Dalvin Cook departed the team in the offseason. He has 83 combined receiving and rushing yards total and fumbled during the Thursday night loss.
Mattison posted more.
“YALL CAN COME AT ME ALL YOU WANT ABOUT FANTASY AND “YOU SUCK” BLAH BLAH BLAH,” Mattison posted. “I REALLY COULD CARE LESS. BUT THIS SH*T IS UNACCEPTABLE. SMFH I HOPE THE 60+ PEOPLE WHO DECIDED TO COME AT ME WITH DISGUSTINGLY DISRESPECTFUL MESSAGES TONIGHT IN DM’S AND COMMENTS. REALLY REFLECT ON WTF YOU SAY AND HOW IT COULD TRULY AFFECT SOMEONE UNDER MY HELMET. I AM A HUMAN..A FATHER..A SON. THIS IS SICK. SMH.
Mattison showed another message to drive home how negatively he was being treated.
“You stupid f*****g c**n, learn how to hold onto the ball. You get paid millions and can’t do sht. This team is 2-0 with Dalvin Cook. Move your black a** back to Boise and start selling cars or some sh*t you slow, useless n****r,” another IG user posted.
Both the NFL and the Minnesota Vikings responded in kind to the profound hate Mattison received.
“There is simply no room for racist words or actions in sports or society,” said part of the Vikings post on social media. “We stand with Alexander and all players who, unfortunately, experience this type of ignorant and prejudicial behavior, and we ask our fans to continue to fight to eliminate racism.”
Minnesota is still reeling from a negative perception after the deaths of George Floyd and Philando Castile. Taking frustration out on a Vikings player from a Week 2 loss is the worst way to change that image.
Over the past seven to eight seasons the Alabama Crimson Tide have enjoyed an embarrassment of riches at the QB position. With Jalen Hurts, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young all starting signal-callers in the NFL, no other college program can lay claim to having four former QBs at once as NFL QB1s.
While that’s great, it also meant head coach Nick Saban had to replace the aforementioned Young, the 2023 No. 1 overall pick, with an inexperienced player this season.
After two games and very mixed results with Jalen Milroe under center, Saban is making a switch to Notre Dame transfer Tyler Buchner. The move doesn’t really come as a surprise in the wake of Milroe’s uneven performance in the Tide’s 34-24 home loss to the Texas Longhorns last weekend. Many believed Saban might make a switch during the game, but he relented and stuck with Milroe. Now, after a week of practice Saban, is switching to Buchner.
At every media session Saban has constantly reiterated that player evaluations are always ongoing. That was no different this week when the seven-time national title-winning coach talked to reporters about how he expects his team to respond to last week’s setback.
“We evaluate every position every week. If guys want security in their position, they need to play well,” Saban said. “Everybody on our team knows that. I think everybody has responded in a positive way to try to get better and to improve.”
“We’ll constantly evaluate that position as we do every other position,” Saban
And after evaluation Saban sees fit to make a change.
With Buchner under center the Tide will have a veteran who played in this offense under offensive coordinator Tommy Rees at Notre Dame. What he brings that the team didn’t get with Milroe is pocket presence, accuracy and more command of the offense. What the Tide will miss is Milroe’s legs and escapability that he’s become known for in Tuscaloosa.
The change itself comes on a week the Tide should win going away against the overmatched South Florida Bulls, but if Buchner can look the part he could solidify himself as the starter going forward.
This week New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers underwent successful surgery to repair his torn Achilles tendon. Rodgers was lost for the season after just four plays with the Jets on Monday night. While his injury cast a dark cloud on the Jets’ Super Bowl aspirations, the four-time NFL MVP seems intent on getting back on the field in 2024, and shockingly even in good spirits.
Friday, during a guest appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” from his home, where he’s recovering, Rodgers talked at length about what Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders is doing at Colorado. Rodgers said with a big grin he’s a huge fan of Coach Prime and is enjoying watching this thing in Boulder come to fruition.
When asked for his thoughts on Deion, Rodgers laid on the admiration kinda thick.
“I’m a Colorado fan. I’m a big fan. I’m a big fan of what Deion is doing. And I’m a fan of the fact that they must be doing something right. Like Saleh said this: If there’s a lot of crows pecking and a lot of people s**t-talking, you must be doing something right.
“And they shut up the team that was in the national championship in week one. And then somebody in week two. And they shut them up, and then somebody else just said something in week three now, and they’re about to shut them up, too.”
Rodgers is correct in saying the Buffaloes, who were predicted to win three games, can match that total with a win in the annual “Rocky Mountain Showdown.” This after wins over TCU and rival Nebraska.
The superlatives from the future Hall of Famer didn’t stop there, as Rodgers also made mention of the two most talked about Colorado players.
“Sanders played at Jackson State but he can’t play at big-time college football, right?” Rodgers asked. “He had 510 yards in Week 1. Come on. What are we talking about here? And the other kid that plays both ways? He’s incredible too.”
That would be the dynamic two-way star himself, Travis Hunter, who’s played over 96 percent of the total snaps in each of the first two weeks of the season.
With their outstanding play, both players have firmly entrenched themselves in the early season Heisman talk.
Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines’ self-imposed suspension of him for the first three games over possible recruiting violations has offered his assistant coaching team an opportunity. Each could fill in the head coach’s shoes. But only one of the four would make history with his short tenure as head coach on the field, former player and current running backs coach Mike Hart.
In his third season as running backs coach at the University of Michigan in 2023, Hart is in his second season as the program’s run game coordinator. During the second-week home game against UNLV, Harbaugh had his son and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh lead in the first half, followed by Hart in the second half of the 35-7 blowout win.
“Being that this is my university, I played here, this place changed my life, and to have that opportunity to say I was the first African American head (football) coach here is huge,” said Hart to the media after the Sept. 9 game.
Before coaching, Hart was a four-year starter at running back for the Wolverines between 2004-2007. He set the school record with 5,040 yards on 1,015 carries and 41 rushing touchdowns and holds the Michigan record with 28 career 100-yard rushing games. In addition, his 117.2 rushing yards per contest are the tops in school history per his Wolverines bio.
The Indianapolis Colts selected Hart in the sixth round of the 2008 NFL draft, and Hart played three seasons for the Colts, although primarily in a backup role. Hart was a member of the Colts’ Super Bowl XLIV team and had two carries in the loss to the New Orleans Saints.
“I had the opportunity to play for Tony Dungy, I had the chance to play for Jim Caldwell, and my first coaching job was with Ron English at Eastern Michigan,” Hart continued. “We have an athletic director in Warde Manuel who is African-American, and I’ve had a close relationship (with him) since he’s been here.
“So, I just had a lot of great coaches who are African-American that I’ve had a chance to look up to and just really let me know that it can happen. Hopefully, we will see more African-American coaches in college football as we need more, and hopefully, I will be one of those one day.”
Michigan picked a different interim coach for each of the three games Harbaugh was suspended for. In the first game, a 30-3 win over East Carolina on Week One, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter held it down as the HC. This weekend, offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore will be the HC against Bowling Green on Sept. 16.
With Minter and Moore not splitting the game with another coach, Hart’s short HC stint was shared. As a former standout player for the team who was an associate head coach for the Indiana Hoosiers in 2020, his history-making time as the Wolverines’ first Black head coach was brief and mildly impactful.
It is a footnote in history that hopefully gets Hart closer to his collegiate head coaching dream, but giving him just half of a blowout game that he had to share with Jim Harbaugh’s son doesn’t feel like enough.
Buffalo Bills WR Stefon Diggs clapped back at team reporter Maddy Glab for talking reckless about him. The Bills employee was caught on a hot mic making negative remarks about Diggs and the remarks went viral.
“The audio shared was very hurtful. And was insulting to my character and to how I was raised. I’ve always treated people how I want to be treated,” Diggs posted on X, formerly Twitter. “I greet everyone with smiles and respect. From the people in our cafe to the people that keep our building in clean & in order.”
Glab was caught on the hot mic talking to another colleague about whether or not Diggs would be fulfilling his media obligations.
“There’s no control over Stefon Diggs,” she can be heard saying on the mic. “Dude’s going to do what he wants to do. He’ll look in my face and say F you. That’s how he treats everybody.”
Pretty damning remarks and personal.
Diggs went on X to deny that he said anything like that to Glab.
“The media or fans may confuse my competitiveness that they witness on the field as who I am as a person. But off the field Id never treat anyone how she described & have never said anything remotely close to that to her,” wrote Diggs.
“Idk why it was said, but this is an example of why people don’t want to deal with the media. It’s hard to fight the preconceived notions people have about you. Regardless of ever having a personal experience with them.”
That’s a pretty wild thing to say about a player who works for the same team you work for. Does she have an ax to grind with Diggs? As a team reporter, did Diggs snub her once for an interview or social media segment? It’s just strange.
Glab did offer an apology on X, stating she respects Diggs, and she said something jokingly to another reporter and it was taken out of context.
“I want to take ownership for what I said today,” she wrote in a note on her X page. “I am very sorry for what I said and meant no ill will. I respect the hell out of Stefon Diggs, and he has been one of my favorite players to cover…For context, media was waiting for players to come out for press conferences when a reporter joking told me to go get Stefon Diggs. I said I don’t have control over him – Stef marches to the beat of his own drum and I love that about him…I should not have said what I said, and I apologize for that. Stef is not in the wrong, I am.”
Glab taking ownership and not pushing the blame somewhere else is the right thing. Like she said, she shouldn’t have said what she did. She was wrong.
Indiana Pacers guard Buddy Hield is switching from No. 24 to No. 7. Normally a player switching numbers is no big deal. But Jermaine O’Neal, who famously wore No. 7 for Indiana, is wondering where the respect is for former great Pacers players.
“I love Buddy and the work that he puts in. My statement has nothing to do with him,” Jermaine wrote, providing a caveat for what would follow.
“It is disappointing to watch teams every year recognize and celebrate the players who have been the franchise’s very best players on and off the court but yet Pacers don’t. It’s been confusing and disappointing to say the least!”
Hield is a good player and enjoyed his best season in the league last year in Indiana. He was a career-high +1.7 EPM. His efficiency numbers were also career highs, 59.6 eFG% and 62.2 TS%. He shot 42.5% from three on 8.5 attempts per game.
But he is no O’Neal.
The former Pacers’ big man was a franchise player in Indiana. In his seven seasons, the Pacers made the playoffs six times. He enjoyed his greatest individual success in Indiana. All six All-Star, and three All-NBA selections happened as a member of the Pacers.
As to whether or not his jersey should be retired, ehhh. Teams have all different criteria for whose jerseys they retire.
Reggie Miller is no doubt the greatest Indiana Pacers player. Then you consider Mel Daniels from the late 1960’s – 1970s and George McGinnis from the 1970s.
Then there’s Paul George, who in seven seasons in Indiana was a four-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA, and three-time All-Defensive selection. The Pacers made the playoffs six times in his seven seasons.
O’Neal is in that company with George. He’s no worse than the fifth-best Pacers player ever.
In that respect, he is due some honor or recognition.
But there is something that is likely being held against him.
O’Neal was a part of the infamous “Malice in the Palace” on Nov. 19, 2004. During a game against the Detroit Pistons, when tempers flared between both teams, a fan threw a drink at the Pacers’ Ron Artest.
Artest went into the stands, fans came onto the floor, and O’Neal knocked a fan out that came on the floor.
It was an ugly mark on the NBA, and then-commissioner David Stern came down with the heaviest fines and suspensions in league history.
It was almost 20 years ago and the event has been litigated to death. But people have long memories, and maybe there are people within the organization who are still holding that incident against O’Neal.
