Verb's Blurb's - 2/25

Ok, so its February and I may have been a little over zealous about stuff going on in sports right now. Along with August, February is horrible for sports and even though I was excited last week when I did my blurb's, let's be honest...

RIGHT NOW, THERE IS NOTHING!

Tiger coming back has been the biggest story of the week and as great as that is for the game of golf, for us sports fans we need more. Hopefully in about two weeks when college basketball gets serious, we will get more but until then I have a few little things for you.

• Stephon Marbury was released by the Knicks and is probably going to be picked up the Celtics. I thought he was released a long time ago so that wasn't really news to me. It seems that Boston is the place where all the washed up, has-beens go to win a championship these days. Last year Sam Cassell and now this year rumor has it that Marbury and Joe Smith are going to do the same thing. This seems weird to me but I guess whatever you have to do to get that ring, right? Me, personally, I would actually like to play for the team when we win a championship, not just ride someones coat tails. That's just me though.
• The Colts released Marvin Harrison yesterday. I think it was a great move by both parties. The Colts knew they didn't want to play Harrison $7 Million again but Marvin knew he wanted more then the Colts would give. The Colts will be better off without him and they showed enough class to let Harrison go because they knew he would be better off without them.
  
• The number 1 team in college basketball lost again last night. The latest victim was Pitt and this was their second time atop the polls. This time they had the ranking for about 17 minutes before they lost. This is about the 9th time the number 1 team lost this season so my solution is to do away with the polls and just say that a group of teams are the top 16 in the country and leave it at that. I am just kidding. The Polls are a fine idea but we need to stop making such a big deal about them. They don't mean jack in college basketball!
• Matt Kenseth has won both Nascar races so far this season. The first one at Daytona was a bit of a fluke but he had the dominate car in California for most of the race. He looks to be very strong this year but we have to remember what happened last year. Kyle Busch won like half of the regular season races and finished last in the chase. Kenseth is on fire right now but its a long season and he can't win them all, can he?
• Alexander Ovechkin is going to get 60 goals again and that team is great to watch. If you didn't see them and the Penguins last Sunday, you missed a good one. Well, good for the Caps anyway. You need to watch Ovechkin! He is the best player in the world right now and he plays every second of every shift like its his last. He is really fun to watch.

Ok, so now that I talked about hockey I think I need to wrap it up. That's it for this week. Let's hope it gets better and gets better soon. March Madness is right around the corner fans!

Verb's Blurb's - 2/18

It's February and it's notoriously the time of year when the entire sports world goes into a rut for a few weeks until it comes out of hibernation for March madness. Here at Jumping Offsides, however, we aren't going to get bored and we aren't going to hibernate. We are going to keep you up on the latest happenings in the sports world and that starts today with the latest version of Verb's Blurb's.

ESPN is dominated right now with A-Rod or A-Fraud, whichever you prefer, and his admittance to using steroids years ago. Well, I gave you my opinion in the first place but after hearing the press conference, I expect the story to keep going and going and going until he gives a different response other then, "I was young and stupid." As I have said before, I just wish we could all move on from it and let it go and realize that it is what it is and either put an asterisk in the books or not.

Anyway, lets move onto some of the lesser known stories of the last few days.

• The NFL combine starts today and lasts a week. This is where these kids get to show off all of their skills that have nothing to do with actually playing football. Examples are how fast they can run in a straight line. How many times they can bench press 225 pounds and how high they can jump standing still. I am 100% sure there will be at least two guys that skyrocket up draft boards just because of his workouts that end up being huge busts in the NFL. I just hope its not a guy that my team takes.
• If you listened to the podcast, which you should have, you heard us talk about the dunk contest. It's back and Nate Robinson and Dwight Howard could be in every year and I would be fine. The little guy jumped over the big guy and the big guy easily dunked on a 12 foot high rim. It was unbelievable!
• Pittsburgh beat Connecticut in college hoops. Jim Calhoun would like to blame the refs for getting Thabeet in foul trouble. I am not sure if Calhoun was watching but Dajuan Blair was dominating Thabeet even when he was in the game. This might have had something to do with the foul trouble but he went right after him. Blair caused the foul trouble and 22 points and 23 rebounds is still huge! Oklahoma is probably going to be number 1 next week but really, why not Pitt? They just beat the number 1 team away from home and were number 4 going into the game. I'm just saying!
• Jerry Jones insists that T.O. will be a Cowboy next season. Hey, all the better, I love watching that team struggle and with him in that locker room and Romo "trying" to become a better leader, I can only see 9-7 at best again next season in that great new 1 billion dollar stadium. You're the man Jerry! Keep up the good work!
• The NBA trade deadline is tomorrow. Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, and Gerald Wallace are just some of the names being mentioned. The hottest name on the block right now though is Raef LaFrentz. Yea, that guy. He has a 12 million dollar expiring contract at the end of the season that Portland could pretty much get anyone for. There are so many problems with this. First, I didn't even know Raef still played basketball. Second, WHY THE HELL DOES HE MAKE 12 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR?!. That is ridiculous. It should be interesting how everything plays out but expect Cleveland to make a huge deal a long with Portland. That's just what my sources tell me. (My sources are my brain and my gut).
• The Daytona 500 was this past Sunday. Rain shortened it and the big one happened again. This time it may have been caused by the most popular guy in racing. That's right, Mr. Earnhardt Jr., while a lap down, made a big run on Brian Vickers and when Vickers blocked him Jr. swerved up into him causing a huge wreck and taking out half of the top 10 at the time. I'm just saying. Oh by the way, Matt Kenseth won. The race ended 48 laps short and tomorrow afternoon will be the debut of Gettin Loose for this year and I will go a lot more in depth about all of this then.
  
• David Beckham insists that he will play for AC Milan for the rest of the season. AC Milan wants to give him a contract through 2010. Seems easy enough, right? Wrong! He is still under contract with the L.A. Galaxy and it doesn't sound like the Galaxy want to get rid of Becks. David, listen to me, just go back to L.A. Soccer can't be the only thing on your plate right now so just go back there, make a movie or two and just live up the good life. It's not worth all of this! Your rep wont be tarnished at all. Hey, you might even get lucky and the MLS might take off while you are still playing and you can take all the cred for it. Oh wait, probably not.
  

That's all I have for you today fans. I told you the sports world isn't as boring as we all seemed to think it is. You just have to be patient for a couple of weeks and everything will be fine!

Hang in there and if nothing else just drink more beer. (Please drink responsibly).

Boo Ya!

Verb's Blurb's - 2/3

The Superbowl was the only thing we heard about for 2 weeks. The game was great and all the hype is great and what not but it always frustrates me when all the talking heads forget that there are other things going on in the sports world.

There are a few that I would like to share my opinion about so I decided to give you another addition of verb's blurb's. Some of these would have been major stories if it wasn't for Superbowl week.

Let's get after it...

• Bob Knight is thinking about coming back to coaching. Where? Georgia! I know it's not a huge program and really it's a football school but I think Mr. Knight should do it. He can still recruit, he can still teach and he can still win. Oh and he WANTS to do all of that too. Why Georgia though? Well, the SEC is down and really he won't have the same problems with recruiting as he did when he was at Texas Tech. He would be fine and Georgia would definitely be a tournament team once again.
• Staying in college basketball Pat Summit is one win away from getting to 1,000 for her career. I don't care if you don't like women's basketball but that's serious and that's awesome. Congratulations Pat, you are one of the best coaches college basketball has ever seen!
• Michael Phelps was caught smoking weed. Haha! Awesome! He isn't going to be sanctioned or penalized or anything unless some Sheriff in South Carolina presses charges. Good luck with that buddy! I don't mind Phelps doing this. So he is human and does real things other then swim. Good for you Mike!
  
• Nadal and Federer played in a Grand Slam final again! It went 5 sets again! Nadal won again! He is definitely the best player in the world now and probably will go 2 for 2 this year. I am seriously wondering if he will win all 4 this year. If he doesn't, I am sure it will be Federer that wins and that would mean he would tie Pete Sampras's record. I hope Fed gets to it because he has done a lot for the game and is one of the best ever! Either way, these two guys are worth watching every time they play!
• Manny Ramirez turned down a 1 year, 25 million dollar contract from the Dodgers. He wants more years and I understand that but I think its a legitimate argument that during this time of economic crisis, what message does this send? I understand, the economy probably isn't affecting ManRam but still. I am just saying.
• Andrew Bynum, Jameer Nelson and Chris Paul all went down with injuries this week. Believe it or not, I think the Nelson one is the one who hurts the most. The Lakers still have Gasol, and Paul is only day to day. Nelson handles the ball every possession for that team and he can really shoot too. I really can't take the Magic seriously without him.
• I wish the steroids thing in baseball would just end already!

That's all for this episode!

Tell me what you think!

Verb's Blurb's - 1/21

Ok, now that the championship games have sunk in and the Cardinals are really going to be playing in the Superbowl, I figured I give you my blurb's from championship weekend. The GM gave an excellent summary of what happened but here are the things I got from watching the games this past Sunday. I was off of work and did watch so I am not making any of this up. Here we go!

• Larry Fitzgerald is by far the best receiver in football.
  
• Kurt Warner is still really good and I would love to have him on the 49ers.
  
• Edgerrin James may not be what he used to be but I sure would take him over a lot of other guys. Tim Hightower will be decent someday but in the Superbowl, Ken Whisenhunt better rely on Edge to carry the load.
• Anquan Boldin should've been upset. I do believe they are past it and Boldin is going to be huge if the Cardinals want to bring home the Lombardi trophy.
• Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid both need to get out of Philly. They had a great season and great careers there but the time has come for both of them to move on.
• With one more receiver the Eagles would've won that game. Desean Jackson is good but Kevin Curtis needs to be the number 3 receiver, not the number 2.
  
• Brian Westbrook is great but if he is going to be your number 1 back you need a solid number 2. Buckhalter may be that but then again he may not be that.

That's what I got from the NFC Championship. Now here is what I got from the AFC Championship.

• Those two teams can hit. Limas Sweed's block was awesome but then Clark's hit on McGahee was even better. I am glad all players are involved are going to be fine.
• Joe Flacco finally gave into the pressure but that kid will be fine.
• Big Ben makes plays when he needs too and that game was no exception.
• Troy Polamalu might just be the best safety in the league.
• The officiating wasn't very good!
• If that catch that Santonio Holmes made at the goal line isn't a catch then something is wrong with football. The fact that that was ruled no catch is ridiculous!
• Those are two of the best defenses I have ever seen!
• Pittsburgh's defense is going to be the key to the game against Arizona because that may be the best offense in the NFL.

I am sure we will have more on the Superbowl in the coming days but for now that's my recap of the conference championships. Both games were great and honestly, I expect the Superbowl to be just as good.

Verb's Blurb's - 1/12

Here we go with the second episode of Verb's Blurb's. College basketball is getting into full swing, college football is over now and the conference championships are next week in the NFL. That's the big news. I will touch on that a bit here but this is more about the lesser stories so let's get it going.

Here is the big news first:

• For all the experts who said North Carolina might go undefeated, let's now see if they will even win the ACC. There are good and all but undefeated, really? I never believed!
• If Philadelphia makes the Super Bowl, the first thing Barack Obama is going to have to do is declare Pennsylvania a state of emergency on February 2nd. Because Pittsburgh is in the state but Baltimore isn't far either. That will be nuts (for everyone in PA, anyway). Not so much for anywhere else and like the GM said, I don't think it will be very good for the NFL.
• Florida was the best team in the country and should've been National Champions. Utah should've been third and really shouldn't have been considered as National Champions. USC should've been number 2.
  

Ok, now for the other stories...

• Tony Dungy retired today. I think he was a great coach and he deserves to go out when he wants. The NFL will miss him and I wish him all the best in his further ventures. WOO WOO!
• Pacman Jones does not deserve another chance in the NFL. He needs to go and I hope the door does hit him in the ass on his way out. You're an idiot and you should just go be a professional wrestler or something. I would love to see the Big Show chokeslam you or something. You're an idiot!
• Jim Rice finally made the baseball Hall of Fame. He has deserved it for a very long time. Congratulations Jim! WOO WOO!
• The Australian Open starts this week and I am excited. I don't know about anyone else but I could go for a couple of more great matches from Nadal and Federer. Don't forget about Murray and Djokovic. This year will be awesome for Men's tennis.
• The Detroit Lions should try like hell to trade the number 1 pick. They need a defensive stud with their first pick and they can trade down and get that in Malauga. They can sign a veteran quarterback in free agency.
• Is Josh McDaniels just a new version of Mike Shanahan?
• The Celtics don't have the best record in the NBA anymore. Guess who does? The Lakers. Kobe and the Lakers. The Celtics don't even have the best record in the East. Guess who does? The fightin Lebron's. I think Lebron has put all that New York talk behind him and if they do well enough, it wouldn't surprise me if Lebron never plays for the Knicks.
  
• Hockey is cool.
  

That's it for version 2 of Verb's Blurb's.

Sports are awesome!

Verb's Blurb's - 12/29

Verb's Blurb's is going to be a column that gives me the chance to write about things that may not be coming from the big 3 sports or in some case's may be coming from there but may not be worthy of an entire post.

It will be things that are note-worthy but may not appeal to all of you fans. Stuff that I see or read or hear about that I think are worth sharing but if you don't see or care about it, I totally understand.

Today will be my first episode of hopefully many to come.

Here goes nothing!

MMA - I saw the Forrest Griffin/Rashad Evans fight last night and it was good. I think I am losing interest in the whole cage fighting thing. I thought I was a big fan of Griffin's but last night I watched what probably will be seen as a great fight and I was only slightly entertained. The best part of the night for me was the interview with Griffin afterwards. If you get a chance to see it, its hilarious!

College Basketball - Gonzaga played great against Connecticut and then went out and lost to Portland State. Really? Is Gonzaga overrated? How can this team really be considered a top team in the country when it loses to teams like Portland State. I really thought the Zags were that good but now I really wonder. Mark Few better get his team back together or the Zags might not win their own conference.

NBA - I tried watching the NBA on Christmas and it was a real struggle for me. However, the Celtics had won 19 in a row before then and were off to the best start in franchise history. They went to L.A. and Kobe and the Lakers ended that streak. The interesting thing for me now is whether or not the Celtics can stay on pace to be the best team ever and whether or not they will win 70 games. I do think this year's team is better then last years and that spells trouble for the rest of the league.

Baseball - Mark Teixiera reportedly went to the Yankees and asked if he could play there. The Yankees had reportedly withdrawn their offer. I don't buy any of it. The Yankees have now signed arguably the three best free agents on the market to ridiculous contracts. I think its stupid as I have said before and I hope they lose every game they play!

Nascar - AJ Allmendinger is replacing Elliot Sadler Gillette Evernham racing. I knew Allmendinger was going to get a ride but I did not see this coming at all. In the same report, Ray Evernham may be leaving the organization. I don't know if they are directly related but man, this is a huge change for a team that really hasn't done much since they have started.