TWITTER INFILTRATES THE NFL

Yes, for those who have seen Conan's semi-funny clips mocking how ridiculous Twitter is, especially when used by celebrities actually applies to this article. Apparently more and more NFL players are posting texts at Twitter. Players like Chad Ochocinco, teams like the New York Jets are even using Twitter for things like announced who they drafted, and even Commissioner Roger Goodell has used this site for updates.

However, it seems as though there are too many problems that could occur by using this overused website. It was in the news that the St. Louis Cardinal's coach was being impersonated on Twitter (I know wrong sport). There are players that are worried that game plans will be the next edition to Twitter posts. Everyone is already poking fun at Ochocinco (besides the ridiculous name) at the crazy posts he's been leaving, which includes calling out Shawne Merriman.

The St. Louis Ram's running back, Steven Jackson, stated: “Sometimes people get really raw and talk like they’re having a one-on-one conversation. But this conversation is open ended. … To me, it’s more dangerous than having a press conference in the locker room. I will have someone [from the team] pull my coattails if I’m going too far with it, or they’ll end the interview. When you’re on Twitter, you can say whatever, whenever you want to say it.”

For more on this story, you can visit here

For some more funny video clips, here's Conan's Twitter Tracker:

MICHAEL JACKSON AT SUPER BOWL XXVII

I'm hardly a Super Bowl halftime show fan, but this was the first one I remember. I actually remember singing along, as we were practicing the same song in elementary school chorus for our spring concert that year.

RIP

T.O. HAS FUN ON COMEDY CENTRAL

Going along with more video clips that are entertaining, here is a clip from the new Comedy Central show, Tosh O.

It's good that T.O. can poke fun at himself, as well as Windows Vista, Joe Buck, ESPN Sportscenter, etc.

Enjoy!

Tosh.0	Thurs, 10pm / 9c
Terrell Owens Apologizes
www.comedycentral.com
Daniel Tosh Miss Teen South Carolina Demi Moore Picture

IF IT'S BROWN, FLUSH IT DOWN...

Aside from calling Bellichick the best coach ever, this is pretty damn funny.

Makes fans of other teams, such as the Bills, feel a lot better.

So if you're a fan of any other team besides the Cleveland Browns, enjoy!

NFL JUSTICE

So as you may already know, Donte Stallworth plead guilty to killing while intoxicated. Not only did he receive 30 days in jail for his crime, but also 10 days of probation afterwards. Recently, the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, suspended the Cleveland Browns' wide receiver indefinitely. Ironically, the NFL sentence is more harsh, and more deserving, than what Stallworth received from the law.

Only famous people can kill people and get away with it, or almost get away with it. I don't care if you turned yourself in, or you plead guilty. That's what you're SUPPOSED to do. What you aren't supposed to do is kill people. I don't care how rich or famous you are, you shouldn't have different standards. You kill someone, you go to jail. You cheat someone out of money, you go to jail... you get the drift. Not that I comb through cases like these everyday, but I don't think I've ever heard average Joes, or Joannas, getting only 30 days for killing someone while drinking and driving. I have seen cases where these people get 3 or 4 years, and still there are people who think that is not enough jail time. However, there is another measure where Stallworth will be under house arrest for 2 years. If he has a nice house, then that's complete crap. The only good thing is that taxpayer's won't have to pay for his whole jail stay.

It was also disclosed when Stallworth gave his guilty plea that an undisclosed amount of money was agreed upon between Stallworth and the Reyes family. I can understand that taking the NFL player up on a deal like this could be beneficial for the family. However, I cannot believe that the Reyes family wouldn't want Stallworth to get the justice he deserves instead of accepting a huge amount of money and almost forgetting about it. It's showing America that all you have to do is shove a whole bunch of money at a problem and it will basically go away... but then again when is that not the case?

So I think that Goodell made a good decision. If the courts of the United States will let someone basically walk just because they are famous, then the least that could be done is to end their celebrity-dom. Stallworth definitely deserves this sentence. You can't kill people and come back to work like nothing happened. That's giving everyone the wrong idea. Especially those who aren't famous and if they ever decided to kill someone, they will probably end up getting the death penalty and not get to go back to work, or whatever they do. Goodell wrote this in a letter to Stallworth: "The conduct reflected in your guilty plea resulted in the tragic loss of life and was inexcusable. While the criminal justice system has determined the legal consequences of this incident, it is my responsibility as NFL Commissioner to determine appropriate league discipline for your actions, which have caused irreparable harm to the victim and his family, your club, your fellow players and the NFL."

The only thing I find weird about this statement is, what if he plead not guilty? Would the NFL be behind him?

Jaclyn Kahn

THE ZEN MASTER'S PLACE IN HISTORY

Last night, the Los Angeles Lakers captured the 15th NBA championship in their franchise history with a 99-86 victory over the Orlando Magic. It also marked the record 10th championship for Phil Jackson, as he has now moved ahead of Red Auerbach for the most championships by a coach in any of the four major North American sports.

The question that many are asking now is where does Jackson rank among the all-time coaches/managers in sports? No one can take away his ten championships, but skeptics have always gotten on him for having the best players in the NBA. Prior to this year, he won six championships with the Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, and three in Los Angeles with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. I don't disagree with those people that say Jackson basically won the lottery when he inherited the Bulls from Doug Collins when they were set to peak in 1989. He then caught a second big break when he took the Lakers' job right before they were set to win championships in 1999. I cannot argue that other coaches would have won with those rosters.

Let me ask these critics a stupid question though. What great coach won without great players? Auerbach won with an absolutely loaded Boston Celtics team. The Celtics had the likes of Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Sam and KC Jones, and John Havlicek. Don't forget that Auerbach was not even the coach when the Celtics won their last two titles in that era. Russell was the player-coach in their 1968 and 1969 title years. Pat Riley won four titles with Magic, Kareem, and James Worthy. He then won a fifth with Dwyane Wade and Shaq in Miami. Gregg Popovich has won four rings with Tim Duncan. John Kundla won five championships with George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers back in the 1950s. I am not trying to diminish these coaches' accomplishments, but for some reason, Jackson has always gotten much more abuse than them when it comes to their championships.

If you are one of those people who feel Jackson has been lucky, then I point to championship #10. After the Lakers lost to the Detroit Pistons in 2004, Jackson stepped down and the mighty Shaq was traded to Miami. The Lakers were reduced to a .500 team at best when Jackson returned to the bench a year later. However, Jackson slienced the critics and has done a remarkable job rebuilding the Lakers without the roster he is used to having. Sure, Kobe Byrant is an all-time great, but this Lakers team does not have the secondary player or depth to their roster that his Bulls or earlier Lakers teams had. They did rip off Memphis to get Pau Gasol, but he is a far cry from what Pippen was to Jordan or what Byrant was to O'Neal.

In my opinion, Phil Jackson is the greatest coach to ever grace the sidelines in NBA history. It is not only because he now has the record for championships, but he has won with really four different teams with many different egos. The first three-peat and second three-peat with Chicago were with two very different rosters. The Lakers' three-peat was a totally different team than the one Jackson has just won with now. Whether it was Jerry Reinsdorf and Jerry Krause giving the Bulls hell in the late 90s or Kobe and Shaq sparring off in this decade, Jackson's leadership held those teams together. A lot of credit has to be given to his mentor Tex Winter and his creation of the triangle-offense, but Jackson has been more than lucky, he has been the all-time greatest.

Pat Morgan

THE MILTON BRADLEY DISASTER

When the Chicago Cubs were courting Milton Bradley this winter, every Cub fan on the planet had to be hoping against hope that this marriage would not happen. It was just inconceivable that the Cubs could be interested in the troubled Bradley. Especially when they could have had all-stars Bobby Abreu, Raul Ibanez, Adam Dunn or Pat Burrell at either less or the same cost as Bradley.

Unfortunately, our nightmare became an all-too-real reality when the Cubs inked Bradley to a three-year, $30 million deal on January 8th. To make matters worse, the Cubs then traded the scrappy Mark DeRosa to fit Bradley's contract into their budget. For a franchise counting every penny with new owners supposedly coming in (ugh, another story for another day), the move didn't make sense in any possible way.

For a player with so much potential, why is he on his sixth team in nine years? Well, it's been well documented that Bradley has been a more than a troubled soul ever since he stepped on a baseball field in 2000. Every umpire in baseball can't stand the whiner. However, that's just the tip of the iceberg. He was basically thrown off the Cleveland Indians in 2004 for throwing a hissy-fit at his manager. Then, with his next team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, he challenged a fan to a fight. With the San Diego Padres, he tore his ACL and was lost for the season when cursing off an umpire who called him out. Finally, during his so-called career year with the Texas Rangers, he furiously darted up to the press box to challenge a broadcaster who said he had a troubled past. That certainly proved the broadcaster's point!

So, why did management sign this clown then? The Cubs said they wanted to put Bradley's left-handed bat in a lineup that desperately needed some left-handed hitters. Well, Bradley had never played more than 126 games in a season, and that's counting pinch-hit appearances. And last I checked, those other free agents I mentioned, besides Burrell, bat left-handed. They then said they wanted to get his glove in the outfield. With his history of knee issues, what person in their right mind could think he could adequately patrol right field? The reason he has not had many errors over his career is two-fold. For one, his range is dreadful. Unless you get a glove on the ball these days, official scorers hardly ever give errors anymore, so a ball that drops in front of him, goes over his head, or he is unable to cut off, are not shown in the box score. The second reason is more obvious. He simply does not play enough games in the outfield. In his "career" year with the Texas Rangers last year, he only started 75 games in the outfield! That's less than half the season. That's a career year? Sad.

For the Cubs, it has taken all of two months to prove this signing has been an utter disaster. In May, Bradley bumped an umpire and was suspended two games. He then claimed there was a conspiracy growing against him. Yeah, great way to apologize to the umps. Oh and what a shock, Bradley has missed a great deal of time to various injuries, and when he is actually in the lineup, he is not performing. He is hitting a robust .225 with only five home runs and 16 RBI.

It can't get any worse, right? I thought so, but that was until the Cubs hosted the Minnesota Twins last night when Bradley apparently forgot a simple rule of the game. YOU NEED THREE OUTS TO END AN INNING! With one-out in the top of the eighth, Joe Mauer hit a lazy fly ball to Bradley. Instead of throwing home in hopes of cutting off a run, Bradley thought the inning was over and tossed the ball into the crowd. Are you that lazy that you can't remember how many outs there are in the inning? Then, he had the nerve to get on fans who booed him.

Here's Bradley's quote:

"That's life," Bradley said. "These people have high expectations. I have high expectations for myself. I never made a mistake like that (losing track of the outs) in my life. Sue me!"

Sue you? I am sorry, but the man has serious mental issues. The fans have every right to boo your sorry play. Where did the Cubs get off giving this moron $30 million? We are stuck with this buffoon for the next two and a half years. I am already ready to rank this signing as one of the worst MLB signings of all-time. I don't have an exact place for it yet, but it is definitely near the top. The Cubs should fire their general manager, Jim Hendry, and any front-office person who was for this move. Any person with a brain knew it would be a disaster! Just look at his resume! No wonder this franchise has not won a World Series in 101 years. How long till football season?

Pat Morgan

YANKS DROP TO 0-8 AGAINST THE RED SOX

Though many Yankees and their fans believed that the Yankees would finally beat out the Red Sox, fate decided to make the game go a different way. Sabathia and his wet Yankees slipped up and lost their lead at Fenway park last night, making that eight straight games the Red Sox have beaten the Yankees.

Q: How bad are the Yankees against the Red Sox?
A: So bad that Ortiz can hit homers off them!

Sorry, I had to do that. Anyway, the Yankees are taking a lot of heat about this, which they should be. The Yankees have been playing well and can use their very expensive threats against other teams. However against the Sox, apparently the money just falls flat.

Now, there are a lot of people, including sports writers and anchors who believe that this is just a phenomenon that will go away eventually. Oh the poor Yankees. Many of them will make excuses, such as the first five loses against the Red Sox don't count because A-Rod (now known as Ster-Roid) was out due to recovering from his surgery. Okay, so even if I gave those five games to you saying that was a fluke, what about these past three games? I watched last night when the Red Sox came from behind and then closed out the soggy Yanks with a 1-2-3 top of the ninth with Papelbon. However, I will not allow people, at least those who I have contact with, tell me that the only reason the Yankees lost the first five games was because of A-Rod missing the action. If only one person can make a team win, then I'm putting all my money on the Bills winning the Super Bowl next year.

So the big news is about how the Red Sox haven't made the Yanks run for the hills since 1912, when they won more than 8 in a row against the Yankees (who weren't even called the Yankees back then). Let's hope that the Red Sox can continue their winning streak against the Yankees because there are multiple reasons why the would will become a better place if this happens. One: Red Sox fans will rejoice at beating down their rivals, Two: The Yankees will look ridiculous, not only for not being able to beat their rival, but for spending so much money on failure, and Three: sportswriters and sportscasters (*cough Cough* ESPN) will have to admit that the Yankees are not the best baseball team and actually do make errors, and yes, sometimes suck, at baseball.

See ya!

Jaclyn Kahn

FOOTBALL: POWERFUL OR PANSY?

Apparently there really isn't much news going on in sports nowadays. Besides all the drama around Ortiz' vision and whether or not Brett Favre is secretly trying to make his fiftieth comeback, there really isn't anything worth mentioning.

Which is why I have decided to write a sort of opinion article.

A couple of minutes ago, while skimming through the information at my usual sports websites, I came across this quote:

"This is football in the National Football League. I hit a guy with my forearm in his throat or his chest area, and they're trying to fine me. It's football! [...] Football now is turning into a soft, pansy sport. This is not volleyball! This is not tennis! This is some of the biggest, fastest, strongest men in the world. I think it's absolutely ridiculous."

The person who uttered these words was Rodney Harrison, the recent retiree who will now join Bob Costas and others at his commentary table.

I can understand where Harrison is coming from, and not, all at the same time. With all of the semi-recent articles about all the new rules the NFL just acquired was kind of ridiculous (minus the hugging April fools joke rule). I understand that those in charge of the NFL want the players to ultimately be able to play without being carted off the field every other week due to an injury that might have been caused by the opposing team looking for blood. For example, the brave soul (my hero) that took Tom Brady out the first game of last year's season cannot do that again without penalizing his team with minus yardage.

I love football; it's my favorite sport. I don't like when players play dirty (unless they are on the team I'm rooting for and they are losing badly so why not take out a few players from the opposing team?). I also don't like when players from my favorite team get hurt (although they seem to be hurting themselves, not from contact from another player). So I can see why the NFL is becoming more strict. However, football is a contact sport. I like seeing great plays that include knocking the QB on his ass, or a defensive player knocking the crap out of an offensive player. These are the plays that make football, football.

So Harrison, I can feel your pain, even though you retired and now you don't have to worry about this. However, trying to closeline a player isn't necessarily part of football. Sure you see moves like that in The Longest Yard, but that's really where they should be put. So yes, football is and should continue to be a contact sport. However, unnecessary contact like forearms into throats might be just a tid bit over doing it. Just do the normal brutal plays and I think everything will be fine.

Along with the Harrison quote came this one, which I thought you might enjoy as I did:

"Did Rodney Harrison seriously just complain that he's not allowed to forearm a man in the throat? Why would a forearm to the throat ever be necessary on a football field? What does the NFL have to do before it's not a pansy sport, allow throat forearms and defensive backs to carry switchblades?"

Jaclyn Kahn