Tennessee Titans’ RB Chris Johnson To Possibly Race Usain Bolt

One things is for sure, Chris Johnson is the fastest man in the NFL. He’s also only the sixth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. With that said, is he faster than the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt?

That question may be answered in the near future.

This is all speculation, but sources close to both men are saying that talks are being made to set up a race between the two speed demons. The proceeds of the event would go straight to charity which is always a good thing.

This seems similar to the possibility of Shaq fighting that giant Korean guy that knocked out Jose Canseco a while back ago. Everyone was excited about that back over the summer and it never happened. Unfortunately, this probably won’t happen either.

The problem here is that Bolt doesn’t come off as the type of guy that’s going to do some big publicity stunt that could distract him from his own sport. It would be extremely fun to watch, but the risk of being injured for both men is not worth it.

Bolt’s agent has already went on record of saying that Bolt wouldn’t do this. Bolt has a strict schedule to follow and doesn’t even really follow the NFL.

If the two were to race, Bolt supporters have said he would prefer a longer race. As much as I love Johnson, I think Bolt would beat him pretty convincingly thanks to that freakishly long stride he has. The shorter the race, the more it would probably benefit Johnson because he does accelerate faster than anyone I have ever seen.

This isn’t the first time that the possibility of Johnson racing an athlete from another sport has come up. Just a little over a month ago rumors boiled up about Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics challenging Johnson to a race. Johnson said it would be easy money, and he’s probably right.

This is a fun water cooler story, but I’m sad to say that Bolt has bigger fish to fry than Chris Johnson.

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Former Vanderbilt Stars Shine on Monday Night Football

You have to look long and hard to find Vanderbilt alums in the NFL. That is, unless you’re looking at the Chicago Bears’ roster.

The Bears currently have five players on their roster that suited up for Vanderbilt once upon a time. Unless you’re a die-hard Vandy fan, the only one you probably know is Jay Cutler. The others are Earl Bennett, Hunter Hillenmeyer, D.J. Moore, and Chris Williams.

Now, I understand that the big programs in the country like Florida put five players on every team in the NFL, but we’re talking about Vanderbilt here. It just amazing to me that one NFL team would pick out that many Commodores.

Last night, ESPN’s Monday Night Football offered another meaningless game to the standings. With that said, the Bears came out like they were playing for a playoff spot. Much of that can be contributed to Cutler, Bennett, and Hillenmeyer.

It’s been a very rough year for Cutler, but last night he reminded everyone of the kind of talent he has. He out-dueled Brett Favre’s Vikings, and Favre congratulated Cutler afterwards. Classy move for Favre to do that.

Former Vandy wide receiver Earl Bennett also had a great game. He had three catches for 35 yards, including a big touchdown reception.

And then there’s the defensive side of the ball. Hunter Hillenmeyer might be the best-kept secret at the linebacker position in all of football. He showed that last night, making 15 tackles and a forced fumble in overtime on Adrian Peterson.

Now, I understand that Hillenmeyer had part of the facemask on that tackle, but it looked like it was incidental contact. It’s part of the game, and the officials missed the call. It was still a great play to punch the ball out during that crucial point in the game.

Hillenmeyer has gotten his chance to showcase his capabilities of as a starter since Brian Urlacher went down for the season. He’s third on the team in total tackles, behind Lance Briggs and Danieal Manning. He’s also become a master at forcing fumbles, with four this season.

For a program that produces very few NFL stars, the Bears are showing other NFL scouts to start looking at Vanderbilt players a little bit harder.

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New Orleans Saints-Indianapolis Colts: Chase for Perfection May Hit a Road Block

Vince Lombardi once said, “perfection is unattainable, but if we chase perfection, then we can catch excellence.”

If that’s the case then the Colts and the Saints have already caught excellence.

All of this talk of perfection has gotten me thinking that there’s not as much parody in the NFL as there once was. There’s a reason why this is the first time in NFL history that two teams have made it this far in the season without a loss. The NFL has always had plenty of parody. Now the gap between the worst teams and the best teams is unbelievable.

The Colts extended their regular season winning streak to 23 last night by sneaking out of Jacksonville with a four-point win. Peyton Manning had to work his heroics once again in the fourth quarter for the Colts to stay perfect.

As for the Saints, they’re sitting at 13-0 with a Saturday matchup against the Cowboys looming. This is probably the last true test the Saints will face during the regular season.

Everyone is ready to stomp all over the Cowboys since they’re historically a bad team in December, but this is a trap game for the Saints. The Cowboys are sick and tired of being crapped on by the media, and Roy Williams expressed that earlier in the week.

Let’s not forget that the Saints have had to come back numerous times this season against teams like the Panthers to stay perfect. The Cowboys are definitely not a championship team, but they’re capable of beating the Saints. Yes, even in the Superdome where it looks like the Saints are unstoppable.

If both of these teams do finish the regular season undefeated, then don’t automatically crown them conference champs just yet. Both conferences have very worthy opponents that could knock both Saints and the Colts into the loss column.

The Saints will have to get through either the Vikings or the Packers. These two defenses are among the best in the NFL and we’ve seen Drew Brees have a few rough games this season. Keep that in mind.

In the AFC, there’s also two teams that the Colts should watch out for. The Chargers and Patriots. This may sound cynical, but I still haven’t climbed on the Charger bandwagon.

They do this every year. They play great ball and have the sports analysts salivating over them, only to lose in the first or second round of the playoffs.

I’m not ready to climb off the Patriot bandwagon just yet. Don’t count the Patriots out of the equation. They should’ve beaten the Colts already, and I think they could do it again. Tom Brady obviously has to get healthy, but he’s got plenty of time for that.

There’s no consolation prize for finishing the regular season undefeated. In fact, it’s extremely overrated. It’s an amazing accomplishment, but it doesn’t make a team any harder to beat in the playoffs by being undefeated.

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Favre Returns to Lambeau In Triumphant Fashion

To my surprise, Brett Favre returned to Lambeau Field on Sunday to an overwhelming amount of boos. You heard a few claps here and there, but it sounded more like a WWE event than it did an NFL game.

Needless to say, Favre was the villain. And after laughing off the boos, and even a few middle fingers, the villain won.

The Packers are now 0-2 against their rivals in purple this season due in large part to the man who brought their franchise back to the top in the mid-90s.

None of this should be put on the shoulders of Aaron Rodgers. Simply put, he’s been great and has proven he’s got a great future in this league. It’s the rest of his team that needs to start pulling its weight. Especially against more formidable opponents.

It still seems the Packers defense has a ton of holes in it. It has looked good against weak opponents and horrible against good ones.

The Vikings now have a powerful grip on the NFC North and unless they collapse like Favre’s Jets did last season, an easy road to the postseason lies ahead.

Favre definitely deserves kudos from the entire NFL. Even the die-hard Packer fans. He came into Green Bay under enormous pressure, threw four touchdowns and led his team to a huge victory. All at the age of 40.

Simply unbelievable, and there’s no other way to put it.

Going into the season I was a Brett Favre critic. I thought he acted like a diva with the whole Packers situation. I still think he did.

Bu I stand corrected regarding his ability. I saw him being just another average quarterback in the NFL. Another Chad Pennington or Matt Hasselbeck.

I was way off.

As good as Favre has been, you can’t forget the fact that Minnesota was already one of the better teams in the NFC before the quarterback addition. They went to the playoffs last season.

I’m not ready to climb aboard the Favre bandwagon just yet, but I’m definitely checking out the brochure.

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Fisher’s Stunt Comes At Worst Possible Time

Virtually every Titans fan had to hear of Jeff Fisher’s little stunt he pulled at a charity event at Lipscomb University on Tuesday by pulling his button-up shirt off and revealing the enemy: a Peyton Manning Colts jersey.

Now I understand that Fisher was just kidding and that it was all in good fun.  Former Colts coach Tony Dungy was there and it was a charity event.  However, Fisher has the worst possible timing. And his opening comment didn’t help things either:

“I just wanted to feel like a winner.”

Excuse me?  Did I really just hear that come out of a coach’s mouth right in the middle of the season where his team is 0-6?  Don’t forget it was just two days after a 59-0 loss that probably even had some Patriots fans embarrassed for us.

This comment had to be demoralizing to many of the Titans players, especially the ones who have given it everything they have this season.  We know for sure it didn’t sit well with Keith Bullock who said, “It didn’t make me laugh at all.”  He went on to add that it doesn’t matter what we think anyways.

Shortly after Sunday’s game, many questions were brought up as to whether the Titans quit or not.  Patriots safety Rodney Harrison thinks our players quit on Sunday, and maybe some of them did.  There’s really no way to know for sure.

I’ve never seen a team go from one of the premiere teams in a conference to the armpit of the entire league so fast.  This team has become nothing but dysfunctional.

There’s already talks that Fisher’s job may be in jeopardy at the end of the season if he doesn’t get things turned around quickly.  Owner Bud Adams has even said that he needs to review this whole situation to see if any changes are necessary.

The media definitely doesn’t seem to think Fisher is the problem, but they don’t make the choices for the organization thankfully.

All I can say to Jeff is don’t quit your day job to become a comedian, because most of your loyal fans probably didn’t think it was too funny.

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Vince Young Should Be the Starter Week One. Whether You Like It or Not

A quarterback controversy is brewing in Nashville after Vince Young recently made comments that he’s “ready to play some ball”.

“If they’re not ready for me, then someone else will be,” Young said.

That sounds like a quarterback that wants to be the starter.

The Vince Young project obviously hasn’t gone exactly the way the Titans had originally hoped for, when they drafted him in the 2006.

However, as hard as the media and Titans fans have come down on Young, there’s still a lot of promise in this guy.

We can’t forget the fact that he’s 18-11 as a starter, and every year he’s played he has gradually improved. There’s also no denying the fact that he had almost no one to throw to the last time he played.

Hopefully, this year will be different with the additions of Nate Washington and first-round pick Kenny Britt.

Now granted Kerry Collins did do a descent job last season, but all he did was manage games. Collins never really made the big play and instead just avoided the big mistake. That’s all well and good, but Collins may only have two years at the most before he retires.

Where does that leave the Titans if Vince Young becomes a disgruntled back-up quarterback that wants out of Nashville?

We can’t afford to lose Vince Young at this point. With the shelf-life of Collins at a bare minimum, the Titans could find themselves without a quarterback as soon as next off-season if they lose Vince Young.

I’m still a believer in Young. I see a guy who is showing his determination to get back on the field and prove he can be as successful as he was in college. He hasn’t missed a day of offseason workouts which are completely voluntary.

You can’t criticize Young for making the comments he did. The guy wants a second chance, and I think he deserves one as long as he has a good training camp.

The next time we see Vince Young we will see a more mature quarterback, who has polished up his pocket passing capabilities along with the threat of using his legs to pick up yards.

If Young does get off to another slow start that leads to a few losses, then obviously Collins will have to be inserted back in as the starter.

At this point in his career, I don’t think Collins will have a problem being the back-up quarterback who mentors Young. He definitely didn’t have a problem with it in Young’s rookie season.

Whether fans like it or not, the future of the Titans lies in Vince Young’s hands—not Kerry Collins’s hands—and they have to give him another chance at being the franchise quarterback that all Titans fans hoped he would be on draft day.

NFL Draft Day 1 Winners and Losers

Like many expected, the Detroit Lions took Matthew Stafford as the No. 1 pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.

They’re paying Stafford a maximum of $78 million over six years, with $41.7 million being guaranteed to go in Stafford’s pocket.

This hefty deal seems to be a big risk for the Lions. If Stafford somehow ends up being a bust, then the Lions could continue to be one of the worst franchises in the league.

However, if Stafford becomes an elite quarterback, then this could be the pick that turns this franchise around.

Day 1 Winners

1. Lions (Matthew Stafford, Brandon Pettigrew)
2. Bengals (Andre Smith, Rey Maualuga)
3. Broncos (Knowshon Moreno, Robert Ayers, Aphonso Smith, Darcel McBath, Richard Quinn)

The Lions added obviously a very talented quarterback in Matthew Stafford and added a great target to help Stafford out in Brandon Pettigrew.

The biggest steal in the draft so far was the Bengals snatching up Rey Maualuga in the second-round. A great linebacker that could end up being the face of this franchise. You also can’t forget the great addition of Andre Smith on the offensive line.

The busiest team on draft day No. 1 was definitely the Denver Broncos. They had five picks and addressed all of their needs with some great picks.

Knowshon Moreno is a versatile running back that can do some many things for you on offense. They also had a value pick in the second round in Aphonso Smith from Wake Forest. Great first day of the draft for the Broncos.

Day 1 Losers

1. Cardinals (Chris “Beanie” Wells)
2. Dolphins (Vontae Davis, Pat White, Sean Smith)

I understand that Edgerrin James is way past his prime, but I just don’t think Beanie Wells is the right choice here. He’s got some health issues and he really doesn’t fit the Cardinals’ style of offense.

Pittsburgh’s LeSean McCoy would have been a better fit for them as he can also turn into a viable receiver for Kurt Warner.

Some may think the Dolphins had a decent draft day, but not me. Their first pick was Vontae Davis out of Illinois. This pick may turn out to be a good one, but Davis has had is moments where doesn’t play well at all.

I really don’t like taking Pat White. White was a great college quarterback thanks to the quirky offense of West Virginia, but I’m not so sure that’s going to translate to the NFL.

Pat White reminds me of a Vince Young, if that gives you any idea of why I see them as a Day 1 loser.

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