Archive for July, 2011

    It’s Saturday again Eagle fans, which means NFL owners, players, officials, fans and even hardworking sports writers like myself are taking the night off. Being a football fan has been stressful lately, to say the least, and every now and then it’s good to step away from all the litigation and rumors and speculation and anxiety and anticipation and chill for second. To sit back, take a breath, and try to remember to good times. To remind ourselves why we’re all fans in the first place. And even if we don’t know exactly when it will happen, it [...]

  It’s almost Friday, which means this week’s run of labor negotiations has come to naught. John Clayton, the ESPN analyst who last week said he was “98% sure” a deal would get done this week, has joined 98% of his fellow “analysts” in proving himself wrong, wrong, wrong about the lockout. The reports today suggest that both sides are now “closer” to coming to an agreement on the rookie wage scale, but as of yet there is still no agreement and no verifiable proof that we are any closer to a finalized CBA than we were back in March. [...]

It’s the win that keeps on winning. The Miracle at the New Meadowlands won the ESPY Award for Best Game tonight, the latest in a string of honors bestowed upon the greatest fourth-quarter comeback of all time. Desean Jackson, Shady McCoy and Jason Avant were on stage to accept the trophy, and DJax briefly spoke about the team believing in itself when no one else did. Avant thanked God. Shady, unfortunately, didn’t take the opportunity to remind Osi that he was was not receiving an award. The Best Play category is still on the way, so DJax still has a [...]

  There’s still time to cast your vote for Desean Jackson at tonight’s ESPY Awards. Aside from being nominated with the rest of the team in the Best Game category, the most dangerous man in football is also up for Best Play for his miracle punt return in the final seconds of last year’s soul-crushing comeback over the New York Giants. The award is purely based on fan votes, so if you haven’t already spare twenty seconds of your time and do your part. Go here and click on the “Vote for Best Play” button. You don’t have to sign [...]

  It looks like all the golf is paying off. Brandon Graham, the Eagles prize selection in the 2010 NFL Draft, says the rehabilitation of his surgically repaired right knee is actually running ahead of schedule (something we’ve heard before) and is hoping to be cleared for action sometime in September. Andy Reid has already put the kibosh on hopes for a miracle, however, by assuring fans in no uncertain terms that Graham will not be ready in time for the season opener. As someone who’s still rehabbing an ACL graft,  16 months after surgery, I can assure you the [...]

  Minneapolis, MN – Negotiations to end the nearly four month old NFL lockout stalled once again today, as players and owners abruptly ended talks at an undisclosed location in Minneapolis follwing a heated exchange between DeMaurice Smith and Jerry Jones. According to a league official, who asked to remain anonymous because the talks are confidential, negotiations hit a stalemate over the issue of compensation for team mascots. “Things were going relatively smoothly,” said the official, “until the mascot thing came up. Within an hour, the meeting was adjourned and both sides walked out in a huff. Swoop had to [...]

  Legal teams for NFL players and owners will meet once again tomorrow morning, setting off yet another week of undisclosed, closed-door negotiations in the league’s ongoing labor dispute. On Tuesday, players and owners will rejoin the talks, which are expected to continue through Friday. The difference, this time, is that court-appointed mediator Arthur Boylan will not be in the room, as he will be relaxing on a beach sipping watered-down mojitos until July 19. No one even remotely connected to the labor talks believes any real progress will happen without Boylan, and fans should hold off any hope for [...]

  Thanks to the nearly four month old NFL lockout and the court-ordered hush order on developments in the negotiating room, sports reporters like myself are simply running out of quality stories to run. Take, for example, today’s ESPN article about Desean Jackson using “homophobic slurs” during an interview for Sirius/XM Satellite Radio. If this were any other year, you never would have heard about the incident. In 2011, however, it’s a lead story. (Jackson, for the record, was responding to a particularly hostile caller and made a Kobe-esque blunder with the “F” word. He was not, in any way, [...]

  As part of a promotion with SeatGeek – one of Fansided’s loyal business partners – a select group of NFL bloggers (including myself) has been asked to submit an answer to one of the most pressing questions ever to face the National Football League: when will the lockout end? The winner of the contest – the blogger whose prediction is closest to the actual end date – will receive $200 worth of game tickets courtesy of SeatGeek, along with the prestige of knowing he’s just smarter than everyone else.. Of course, we professional sports writers have no more access [...]

  Happy Fourth Bird fans. Hope you’re relaxing or blowing something up somewhere. Usually, this holiday serves as a reminder to all the dawdling, procrastinating Americans out there that summer is going by quicker than any of us realize, and we’re running out of time to rent that beach house or go camping or accomplish any of the other things we promised ourselves throughout this long, cold winter. The Fourth is a wake-up call, and it usually leads to some of the funnest, most-action packed days of summer. The same, hopefully, will be said about the NFL lockout. In the [...]