Flozell Adams Fined, But Was It Enough?

Dallas Cowboys tackle Flozell Adams was fined for the second week in a row after tripping New York “Football” Giants Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora during Sunday’s loss in Dallas.

Adams was fined $12,500 for both incidents, which I find a little soft.

He was fined $5,000 for unnecessary roughness in Tampa during Week One. And then Adams trips two Giants defenders the next week, which led to Tuck’s shoulder injury—and don’t kid yourself Cowboys fans, that also led to those gaping holes Marion Barber ran through.

I’m more forgiving when a rule is broken because of a mistake. But after watching the replays, both trips seemed deliberate.

To me, this screams for a higher fine. In a league that prides itself on protecting its athletes, the NFL needs to send a bigger message than a tiny fine like this one for a deliberate act.

For a guy that constantly finds himself on the commissioner’s list, Adams seems to get off pretty light each time. Until the NFL takes a more severe stance, the infractions will probably continue.

Tuck and Adams have spouted a few words at each other sync. Tuck called the trip “bush league,” to which Adams replied, “Tell him to stay up, it ain’t my fault.” 

I might be in the minority here, but I feel a deliberate trip on a rushing lineman or linebacker is just as dangerous as a hit on an unsuspecting receiver or quarterback.

There isn’t much give when a man of Tuck’s size crashes into the ground because of a cheap act.

With the fine and the running of the mouths, the Dec. 6 rematch should be fun to watch.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

NFL Bone Heads of the Week

 

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Happy Tuesday Morning Loyal Reader!  I’m back with another F-…I mean Bone Heads of the week award. 

You might be wondering about the name change.  Well because I’m long winded I’ll be glad to tell you. 

It turns out that my dear old mother is a reader of Bleacher Report (who knew).  Also she didn’t quite care for the name “F-Tard”, so to make my sweet mother happy this article will now be the NFL Bone Head(s) of the Week.

Now, on to the Bone Heads!

This week was a tough one.  There were some dumb plays, but unlike last week, there were none that really cost the team in the long run. 

I had plenty of nominees, one was Tony Romo with his three picks, but they weren’t really dumb as they were misfires or bad reads.  The first interception was a great audible by the Giants and then a good jump route. 

The second was a fluke, and third the safety was so far off I’m sure 90 percent of the quarterbacks in the NFL would not have seen him.  So, Romo, you’re safe for this week.

Then we have Coach Jim Zorn of the Washington Redskins for his poor play calling in the red zone and the ill-advised going for it on forth and three from the five yard line.  Alas though the Skins won and I picked on them last week.

So who to pick?

Well even though I said I had already picked on the Skins I’m going to have to do it again (Guys I love you, please stop making me mention you in this article).  My NFL Bone Head of the week is Robert Henson.

Who?

You know Robert Henson, the seventh round pick from Texas Christian. You know, the rookie linebacker.  Yeah, that Robert Henson.

Don’t worry, I had no clue who he was until Monday morning either.

Well for those of you who did not watch the epic offensive battle of the Redskins’ 9-7 win over the St. Louis Rams let me tell you, the fans at Fed Ex Field in Washington DC, I mean Landover, MD were not happy with the team’s production.

Failing to score on three red zone attempts on a team that was shut out the week before made the fans quite cross.  With every run up the gut in for one yard or less in the red zone a choir of boos rained down on the team.

Mr. Henson had had enough of it.  After the game he he hopped on his Twitter account and ripped the fans. 

First off, who subscribes to his Twitter account to where this would make headlines?

Anyways he called the fans “disloyal” and “dim-wits”, which I’ll agree with 25 percent of that statement. 

Disloyal?  Not Redskins fans.  When a team can start 0-5 like they did a few years back and still sell out games that screams unabashed loyalty to a team, especially when you have a much hated owner like Dan Snyder at the helm.

Dim-wits?  I’ll agree that 50 percent of the people booing are probably dim-wits.  Mostly because these are the same fans who will boo when the punt team comes out no matter the situation.  They probably go for it on Madden when its 4th-and-26. 

However not all the fans booing are dim-wits nor were any of them disloyal.  They were simply expressing their displeasure with the coach’s play calling.

The boos were not directed at the players, not one of them.

So Mr. Henson (for your own protection I suggest you change your name) for calling out one of the most rabid fan bases in the NFL has earned you the coveted NFL Bone Head of the Week.  Congratulations, Sir!

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Time Outs Just before the Snap Have Got To Go

In last night’s Sunday Night Game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, like every other game that comes down to a field goal, Wade Phillips waited until the last possible second to use a time out in order to freeze Giant’s kicker Lawrence Tynes. 

Now I’m not against freezing the kicker, even though I don’t really think it works, but what I am against is waiting until that last possible second. Why? Because the play still gets ran.  The players don’t hear that whistle and they go about the play as if nothing has happened.

This means you have men upwards of 200 pounds rushing in trying to block a field goal attempt. When you run a play like this at the end of a game, especially one as emotionally charged as the stadium opener in Dallas (well Arlington), you’ve got guys giving their all to block that kick.

If someone gets hurt on a play, well that’s football, but if someone gets hurt for no reason, as in what could have happened when the time out was called just before the snap, well that is close to being unsporting.

The freezing part was moot because Tynes made both kicks (in fact the practice seemed to help because the second try looked much better than the first), but what would Wade Philips have felt if a guy like DeMarcus Ware or Terrence Newman had been hurt on either play?

For every play you run in a game, as emotionally and physically charged as football, you run the risk of injury, so why up those risks with useless plays that don’t count?

I don’t think they should out law freezing the kicker, but there should be something done about last second time outs from the sideline. Sadly, like all obvious rule changes, nothing will happen until a star gets hurt…which is very unfortunate.

Until next time Loyal Reader, take care.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Fans Get Shafted by Blacked out Games, or Do They?

In this down economy, many people have been looking for ways to save a few bucks here and there. For some, that means not going out to the stadium to enjoy fall’s greatest spectacle: football.

However, with a decline in ticket sales, teams like Jacksonville, Buffalo, and Cincinnati are expected to have blacked out home games.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with blacked out home games, a blacked out game occurs when a team fails to sell out its home game 72 hours prior; the game is then “blacked out,” or not shown locally.

Many people, especially with the economy, cry foul for this practice, because not everyone can afford to go to the games. At first, I’m inclined to agree with these folks.

Yet, not requiring a game to be sold out in order to be on television would drastically cut into a team’s revenue. In cities like Cincinnati and Buffalo, where the winters are quite harsh, getting out to see a game can be murder.

Even if you are a die-hard fan, why go out in the miserable weather when you can watch the game for free? 

You may be saying at this point, “Yeah, but those teams are losing, if they were winning that wouldn’t be a problem.”

True, winning does solve a lot of attendance problems, but even when the Bills were winning in the early ’90s, they still had trouble selling out games in December because of the weather. 

Outside of the economy, I’ve heard the argument that baseball doesn’t have the same black out rule as football. This is true, as Major League Baseball does not require games to be sold out to be shown locally.

If it’s good for the MLB, why isn’t it good for the NFL?

Well, the MLB has a 162 game schedule with 81 home games, compared to 16 and eight for the NFL. Since MLB tickets are almost as expensive as a ticket to an NFL game, the revenue can be made up a lot easier.

Also, the individual baseball teams work out their own television deals with local stations to show their games; so again, the MLB teams have an opportunity to make more money this way. 

Now, if the NFL were to allow teams to do this, maybe those unfortunate fans whose teams don’t sell out would be able to see their teams play. However, loyal reader, that is an article for another time.

Also, let’s not forget that the NFL is a business, and you don’t make money by giving the product away for free. If they did show the games locally without selling the games out, they would have to make that money up somewhere.

Maybe in merchandise sales, longer timeouts after a change of possession, or higher tickets and concession prices, whatever the case may be, and this wouldn’t just be for the teams that are not selling out. 

If Jerry Jones sees that a team like Buffalo could sell a T.O replica jersey for $125, then he’ll do the same, even though he’s selling out his new stadium. 

I do sympathize with the fans who can’t see their teams play every week. The black out system sucks, but it’s a necessary evil, because without those ticket sales there might not be a product at all.

So here’s hoping that the teams in those danger areas sell out at least half their games, so the fans don’t miss too much football.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Thanks for Cheering On the Washington Redskins, We’ll See You in Court!

Loyal readers, I do my best to defend my beloved Redskins. I mean, I really try. I also try to give Dan Snyder the benefit of doubt. 

Sure, he makes mistakes, but I tell myself he makes these mistakes while trying to make the team better. His intentions are good, they’re just stupid.

Today, I find myself unable to defend this team or its hobbit-sized owner. Today, as part of a multi-issue story about tickets, the Washington Post has revealed that since 2005 the Washington Redskins have sued over 125 fans over ticket contracts.

Let me get this out of the way first: not all of the people being sued had any reason to get out of their contract, other than they didn’t want to pay anymore. Also, I think it’s pretty dumb to enter into a multi-year contract for tickets, especially those that cost upwards of eight grand a season.

Many of these fans being sued, however, have lost their jobs, homes, and businesses because of the bad economy. Needless to say, luxury seats to a football game should be one of those things to go.

Well, if those seats are to a Redskins’ game, I’m sorry: you can’t. If you try, they’ll sue, and because you can’t afford a lawyer now that you’re jobless and homeless, they’ll win.

The lawsuits bother me and make me sick to my stomach, but what really bothers me is that after Danny Boy wins these suits, he then resells the seats!

Let me write that again: after he wins the suits, he resells the seats!

That sink in? Good.

The Redskins’ General Counsel, David Donovan, claims that everyone’s doing it. Well not quite. 

Only two teams confirmed to the Washington Post that they have ever sued fans.  The teams being the New England Patriots and Chicago Bears.

On the flip side, the Ravens, Bengals, Packers, Texans, Jaguars, Giants, Jets, Seahawks, and Titans have never sued fans over season tickets (the remaining franchises did not comment to the Post).

Also, fellow Washington D.C. teams the Wizards, Nationals, and Capitals have never sued their fans. If a fan can’t pay, they revoke the tickets and resell them. What a novel idea.

The Redskins claim to have a waiting list of over 160,000 fans waiting for tickets. I don’t know how true this is, but it did take me around five years to get offered my tickets. 

In case you’re wondering, I didn’t accept. First off, it felt like signing away my soul to the devil, and second, they wanted a non-refundable $100 deposit per seat (I would need at least two) and then they tell you what seats were available.

So theoretically, I pay my $200 and then I’d get my seats, but what if they were ones I couldn’t afford. Then that $200 is gone for nothing. I had always thought if my name came up I wouldn’t be able to pass it up. Well, I was wrong. It was quite easy to throw that letter in the garbage, and after reading the Post today, I’m glad.

Now, if the waiting list is so long, why the lawsuits? Just sell them to someone else. D.C. is a football town, and if the Caps and the lowly Nats can resell their lost season tickets, I find it hard to believe the Redskins would have a problem.

For those of you still siding with Dan Snyder on this one, let me leave you with this: a season ticket holder in Maryland was declared by the state to be mentally handicapped and not fit to work. He could then not pay for his seats by the declaration of law. 

Guess what? The team tried to sue him too. Luckily, the case was thrown out when neither party showed for the case.

Dear God What Have I Done?

It is amazing how forgetful we can be. Just two weeks ago, while I was reading articles on Bleacher Report at work, my wife called me.  

“Honey,” she said, “I’ve booked us a romantic weekend.”

“Great!” I replied. “When?”

“The weekend of September 12th.”

“Ok, sounds good,” I said and hung up.

That was that.  

I went back to “work” and carried on with the rest of my day.  

Today, as the season draws evermore closer it dawned on me. I’m going to be off in Williamsburg, Virginia as my Redskins take the field.

As my wife said “The weekend of September 12th.”  My hunter-gatherer brain didn’t take into context that the 13th follows the 12th and that a weekend is two days, and that second day the beginning of the season.

What am I going to do?

I’ve already floated the idea of coming home early Sunday morning, no dice.

I’d cancel the whole damn thing if it weren’t for the fact that its non-refundable and that my wife would kill me.

I guess I could watch from my room, but that television isn’t going to be anything compared to my 62 inch DLP with 5.1 Surround Sound.

I don’t know if I can deal with that.

Maybe I can get lucky and there will be a decent sports bar with a nice set up to watch the game.  

Any suggestions you loyal readers can come up with will be a great help.  

Thanking you in advance!

Washington Redskins: A New Season Brings Hope for This Loyal Skins’ Fan

I don’t know why I do this to myself ever year. Despite all of the logic in the world, I convince myself the Washington Redskins will finish the season 16-0 and as Super Bowl Champions. 

I have little to back this up, but mostly it’s just the undying loyalty to the team and the hope that this year is the long awaited “Next Year”.

Of course my prediction will take a hit when the team has its inevitable first loss (probably coming in Week One, since it’s at Giants Stadium), but my hope for a Super Bowl will not fade.

People look at me quizzically when I tell them this. I know they probably think I have issues, but I don’t. I’m a fan, a die-hard fan. I believe that every year my team has a shot, and you knowhow that ends.

At this point in the season, 32 teams are undefeated. We can all have the same blind hope that everything is going to come together for our team and that this year it will click. Of course 31 teams are going to be disappointed at the end of the season, but right now, at this very moment, there is only hope. 

It’s like Christmas Eve. In that big box, is it a Wii or is it a sweater from grandma?

I will, however, give you the little logic that I do have to backup my hopes. First, I’ll start on the defensive side of the ball. Last year the Skins had a top 10 defense, despite not taking the ball away enough or sacking the quarterback. There were no real losses and some good acquisitions.

Albert Haynesworth has a lot to prove now that he’s a 100 million dollar man, but he is a good player and will attract double teams, which will hopefully free-up Andre Carter.  One would hope now that he has his money “Pride” will keep him playing at the level he played at last season. 

He also has injury issues which can’t be ignored, but lets face it, this is football, players get hurt. A guy who never misses a start can get hit with a freak injury. The threat of him getting hurt is there, but that looms for all players. I think Haynesworth’s presence will help the Skins’ D-Line, which has been weak for the better part of a decade.

Also the midseason signing and offseason resigning of DeAngelo Hall is a plus for the Skins’ take away department. He may get burned once and a while, but what this team could have used last year was a pick or two taken to the house. This team was literally two or three big plays from being a playoff team. Hall certainly gives them that opportunity. He’s had his off the field problems in Atlanta and Oakland, but you have hope he sticks to his word this year that all of that stuff is behind him. 

Like Haynesworth, we’ll see.

Now on to the offense. Here I see nothing but positives because after last year, I don’t think they can get much worse. I have to believe that Campbell being in a contract year will show the NFL something. Even if he isn’t a Redskin next year he may be auditioning for a starting job elsewhere.

Then you have Kelly and Thomas, two rookie wide receivers who couldn’t get on the field last year. According to reports from camp, they are grasping the offense and will see more playing time. This should help the Skins in the redzone.  Now Campbell will have two wide-outs over six feet tall to throw to, instead of the Smurfs.

The real big question mark I see for the Redskins is their O-Line. Can they keep Jason upright long enough to throw down the field? They had problems doing that last year and with the exception of signing Derrick Dockery, they didn’t really address the line. Maybe Joe Bugle can work some magic there.

Also realistically looking at the NFC East, I only see the Giants as being a power house.  I think not having Jim Johnson and Brian Dawkins in Philly will hurt the Eagles’ defense, especially when it comes to leadership. 

As far as Dallas is concerned, I’ve never been sold on Tony Romo as the second coming of Troy Aikman, hell, I don’t think Romo is as good as Danny White. I think without T.O., Whitten won’t be as open and Romo won’t have his safety blanket to dump off to when he gets into trouble.

I’m stating it right now, Romo’s TD/INT ratio will be close to even.

So as far as the division goes, I think the Redskins can go 3-3 or even 4-2 and steal a win on the road. Outside of the division the Skins play St. Louis, at Detroit, Tampa, at Carolina, KC, at Atlanta, Denver, New Orleans, at Oakland, and at San Diego. The only tough opponents are Atlanta and San Diego. Now that Cutler is gone I don’t think Denver will finish better than 4-12.

In the course of this article I’ve already swayed from my 16-0 record by conceding a few Divisional loses, but overall, I still have high hopes for my team. From where I sit now I realistically see them at 10-6 with a Wild Card. 

Who knows though? An injury here or there they could be 4-12, or a surprising player or injury in Dallas, Philly, or NY and Washington could be 13-3 and Division winners. 

Honestly no one knows what is going to happen this season, we are all optimistic that this year is the year and for a luck few, it will be. 

As Week One quickly approaches, keep thinking that, “Next Year is this Year!” 

Go Skins!

 

 

 

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