Monday, April 12, 2010

Wonder what Elin was doing yesterday?

Spring football games are typically overblown in their importance, although they have some value. UF having a productive offensive day without Tim Tebow even being in the building will likely impact where they're rated when the polls come out. Interestingly, Steve Spurrier seems to be determined to prevent his team from getting any positive attention before the season, because he doesn't think they can handle praise at all. Georgia's fans are all convinced one RS freshman's their best guy because he looked good in the game, while the other RS freshman the coaches want was third best. Unfortunately it's four months before any of it really matters.

Urban Meyer must have felt pretty good about things Saturday, because he spent Sunday in Augusta at the Masters with family and Bernie Machen. (Also in the same media tower on hole 12 was Mark Wahlberg, by the way. No word on if they talked.) Meyer and everyone else saw a great scene with Phil Mickelson winning, and maybe this will create an actual rivalry between him and Tiger Woods after all. Woods looked like he was struggling most of the weekend while shooting 11 under at Augusta National and finishing fourth. It seems a lot of people were upset by the fact he still curses at times on the course. Anyone who thought he was going to be able to quit that cold turkey was deluding themselves. Now the question is when will we see Woods again and how will the public reception be when the crowd is less genteel than the ones allowed at Augusta National?

The NFL Draft is ten days away, and now that every prominent player has had his pro day the teams are beginning to set their strategies. Michael Lombardi of the National Football Post, whose Sunday columns are always worth a read, says Miami is looking to trade down from 12 in the first round. A lot of teams are looking for extra picks in a deep draft, so the question is are the Dolphins moving back because they just want more bodies or have they set their sights on a player they know should be available at a lower spot (and for less money) than pick 12?

The Georgia DAs who've been investigating the sexual assault allegations against Ben Roethlisberger are expected to announced today that the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback will not be charged. This story will likely play out in the civil arena as well, more than likely with a payoff of some sort to make a lawsuit disappear. It's impossible not to assume that this incident made the Steelers even less willing to put up with any more off field stupidity from Santonio Holmes. The wide receiver, who reportedly is facing a four game suspension for violating the NFL substance abuse policy, has been traded to the New York Jets for a fifth round pick. If the Steelers wanted to work at it, they probably could have gotten more. This was a case of wanting to wash their hands of a guy immediately while sending a message to Number 7 at the same time. Between Rex Ryan's trash talk and them adding Holmes, Braylon Edwards, and Antonio Cromartie in the past six months the Jets appears to be going for an old school "Raiders East" vibe. We'll see how that works out for them, but I've always believed you pan for gold in a river rather than a sewer.

No comments: