Eagles and Michael Vick come to a 6-year deal.

If you thought Michael Vick was done with football whenever he went to jail, you we never so wrong.  He just managed to get a 9 figure deal from a team he really hasnt done much with yet.  I mean I am all for getting paid but that seems a little ridiculous if you ask me.   He is seriously back right at the top again though.  He is getting 40 million dollars guaranteed with his 6-year $100 million deal.  He only started in 11 games last season going 8-3 for the season.  Here is a list of career records last season with the Eagles (keep in mind that he played in 12 games instead of the normal 15 or 16 games like every other season with Atlanta):

• Passing Percentage:  62.6%
• Passing Yards: 3018
• Touchdown Passes: 21
• Rushing Touchdowns: 9
• QB Rating: 100.2
• Average Passing Yards: 8.1

If you take this into consideration you have to think that he has gotten even better since his Atlanta days.  I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of backlash in this whole process with him just a couple of years out of jail.  His previous deal with Atlanta was for 130 million dollars but over 10 years.  With this deal being even better, you can bet that people are going to come out ranting and raving about how we have not had enough time to see whether or not he has changed.  Look people, this dude grew up in an atmosphere of dog fighting.  Much of your middle-lower class in the South have all been to dog fights or at least heard about them.  I am not saying what he did was right or anything but I think you need to give the guy a break because he was just doing something that he grew up around and saw as entertainment on a Saturday afternoon.  He went to jail, paid his price…lost over 100 million dollars (most people don’t even make that much in the lifetime), his house, his team and came back stronger with a much better work ethic.  The point is that he came back and is now play even better than before.  He has a better supporting cast around him than he had in Atlanta which just goes to show that the Philadelphia Eagles will be a major threat to my Dallas Cowboys this season.

UTSA Football Season Officially Open!

The UTSA Roadrunners will be playing their first football game in school history.  For the first time their students will be able to have a big sport to cheer for and a great place to go for them.  They will be playing all of their home games at the Alamodome (also where the Alamobowl is played and has seats for up to 70,000+ people).  Former Miami Hurricane Head Coach Larry Coker will be coaching the team and we should expect some pretty interesting things as their first season of football gets underway.  We can hope for at least a .500 record as they will be moving up to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) as of 2012.  Playing in the FCS (Division 1-AA) should not be all that hard or we might be looking at a program that could take a while to get off the ground.  They may be able to get some of the best players in the San Antonio area but unless they are winning most of their games, I find it hard to believe that players from outside the city, much less the state will be dying to get in there. 

 

2011 UTSA RoadRunner Football Season Schedule

Date	Opponent	Time (CST)
September 3rd	Northeastern State	1:00 PM
September 10th	McMurray	1:00 PM
September 17th	@ Southern Utah	7:00 PM
September 24th	Bacone College	1:00 PM
October 1rst	@ Sam Houston State	6:00 PM
October 8th	South Alabama	1:00 PM
October 15th	@ UC Davis	4:00 PM
October 29th	Georgia State	1:00 PM
November 12th	@ Mcneese State	7:00 PM
November 19th	Minot State University	1:00 PM

Stick a Fork in Him. Tiger Woods is Done.

It seems like just yesterday I was praising how durable Tiger Woods is.  Exactly two years later I am wondering if I will ever have the pleasure of seeing him win another Major.  I am starting to think that Tiger might not have it in him to continue to win.  Maybe he really did have a “tiger” inside of him that was fueled by sex and scandals.  I would honestly ask the real question here which is, “Is Golf Done?”  In a time where we have had 13 different winners in the past 13 Major golf tournaments, how can you expect the average fan to keep involved with the sport?  Well we would get a good feel this past weekend as the final players were unknown.  It was the perfect situation.  An epic golf match for those who truly respect the sport.  What do you think happened? Because there we no names in the playoffs the coverage actually dropped 14 percent from last years ratings.  Last years actually ended in a playoff also at Whistling Straights with Martin Kaymer beating Bubba Watson.  If you aren’t sure about TV ratings then let me give you a comparison.  The preseason game tonight with the Jets and Texans will probably boast about the same rating as the Super Bowl of Golf.

So what does this mean for Golf and the PGA?  My guess is that someone is going to have to step forward as a crowd favorite or I think Golf is going to slip back behind Soccer, Nascar, etc.  Golf has always been one of those sports that needs to have a few great players at the top in order for it to thrive.  With Tiger Woods, we had a guy who dominated the sport for years but every once in a while slipped up to give us some parody.  With Tiger Woods, there is no drama.  While Tiger has never been a comeback kind of guy, he has always managed to finish at least in the Top 10 at most tournaments.  Now it feels like he isn’t even just an average golfer, he is just a hobby golfer.   We can only hope that either Tiger Woods (who has lost his wife, most of his sponsors, his swing coach, his caddy and pretty much everything else) some how miraculously comes out of this slump or one of the up and comers steps up to win a few tournaments in a row to generate some talk about a Tiger replacement.

US High School Top 25 – MaxPreps

MaxPreps’ XCELLENT 25 has come out and it actually features 4 high schools from Texas.  Would you believe that once again California, Florida, and Texas account for nearly half the teams in the top 25?  Considering the best athletes tend to come out of those states, I’m not really surprised.  Aledo is the lone wolf of the group from Texas however, being the only team of 4A status in the group.  The others are much larger schools with more talent to choose from.  I look forward to seeing some of their games this season.  SidelineBlog will have members represented at a lot of these three teams games this season and will be posting video footage of most of them.  Here is the Top 25 High School Football teams brought to you by MaxPreps:

MaxPreps Preseason Top 25

Rank	School	State
1	Don Bosco Prep	Ramsey, New Jersey
2	Armwood	Seffner, Florida
3	De La Salle	Concord, California
4	St. Thomas Aquinas	Fort Lauderdale, Florida
5	Allen	Allen, Texas
6	Prattville	Prattville, Alabama
7	Trinity	Euless, Texas
8	Pleasant Grove	Elk Grove, California
9	St. Edward	Lakewood, Ohio
10	Bishop Gorman	Las Vegas, Nevada
11	Katy	Katy, Texas
12	South Panola	Batesville, Mississippi
13	Centennial	Corona, California
14	Glades Central	Belle Glade, Florida
15	Our Lady of Good Counsel	Olney, Maryland
16	Harrison	Farmington Hills, Michigan
17	Dwyer	Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
18	Warren Central	Indianapolis, Indiana
19	St. Xavier	Cincinnati, Ohio
20	Trinity	Louisville, Kentucky
21	Aledo	Aledo, Tx
22	Oaks Christian	Westlake Village, California
23	Bellevue	Bellevue, Washington
24	Chaparral	Scottsdale, Arizona
25	Grayson	Loganville, Georgia

Preseason picks done by MaxPreps.com

To All the Texas A&M Fans Out There:

Hello Aggies how are you doing on this fine afternoon?  Not too angry about the Longhorn Network I hope?  What I find funny is that no one had a problem when Texas was making more than $80 Million per season through their football team alone yet now fans are in uproar since they signed a TV contract with ESPN.  If Texas A&M leaves you can almost be guaranteed that the University of Texas will go independent.  If Notre Dame and BYU can go independent and Texas has 10 times the recruits both schools pick up, there really isn’t any reason they would not be able to go independent.  Aggies going to the SEC would be one of the worst moves they could possibly make.  I realize that there might be a little bit more money involved for you but consider this before you decide to make this move.  This could be your schedule if you move to the SEC:

Texas A&M Possible SEC Schedule

Team	Current Ranking	Last Years Record
SMU	NR	7-7 (6-2)
Texas	24	5-7 (2-6)
Arkansas	14	10-3 (6-2)
LSU	4	11-2 (6-2)
Ole Miss	NR	4-8 (1-7)
Auburn	19	14-0 (8-0)
Alabama	2	10-3 (5-3)
Missouri	21	10-3 (6-2)
Florida	23	8-5 (4-4)
Georgia	22	6-7 (3-5)
BYU	NR	7-6
Mississippi State	20	9-4 (4-4)

6th Football Related Death in the Past Week

Its not just Texas that is hot hot hot!  Apparently Arkansas is too right now as another student has died on the football field.  KATV in Arkansas is reporting that Montel Williams (15 years old of Gurdon, Arkansas) collapsed and died after practicing less than an hour.  Practice was started at 7:30PM to battle the hot temperatures in the past week.  They only practiced for about an hour and an ambulance was called at 8:40PM.  Being from Texas, I fully understand how bad the heat has been lately.  The average temperature in Fort Worth for the past week has been about 107 with 40 days in a row now of over 100 degrees.  Monday it becomes a record since the beginning of records.  There is no end in sight for us and you need to make sure that you are hydrated at all times.  The cause of death is still unknown for Montel Williams but I imagine the heat had something to do with it.  That marks the 6th player in the past week to die in the Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas area.

Oklahoma #1??? No One Gets Crowned Pre-Season

Skip Bayless is “booking it” already and says that Oklahoma has rightly been chosen #1 by most of the coaches in the NCAA. Oklahoma vs. Alabama in the national championship??? I think not.  Anyways, the Coaches Poll has come out and surprise surprise Okie-La-Homer was right, they are #1 by quite a distance.  Alabama comes in second with less than a third of the votes of Oklahoma.  Does this mean that Oklahoma is 3 times better than Alabama…of course not.  The Big 12 looks strong this year, lets just hope they can live up to their reputation.   With exactly half of the Big 12 in the top 25, we are no doubt expecting great things this season.  Another team that SidelineBlog will be closely following is the TCU Hornfrogs.  They were undefeated last season beating two #5 ranked teams and Oregon State who was in the Top 25 at the beginning of the season.  They beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl.  I think that  leaves nothing else to say.  Here is your Coaches Poll Preseason Top 25 (and also realize that this is in no way how the season will turn out).

 

Rank	School	Record	Points	Previous
1	Oklahoma	0-0	1454	6
2	Alabama	0-0	1414	11
3	Oregon	0-0	1309	3
4	LSU	0-0	1296	8
5	Florida State	0-0	1116	16
6	Stanford	0-0	1101	4
7	Boise State	0-0	1065	7
8	Oklahoma State	0-0	933	10
9	Texas A&M	0-0	885	21
10	Wisconsin	0-0	829	8
11	Nebraska	0-0	814	19
12	South Carolina	0-0	779	22
13	Virginia Tech	0-0	767	15
14	Arkansas	0-0	750	12
15	TCU	0-0	687	2
16	Ohio State	0-0	631	5
17	Michigan State	0-0	536	14
18	Notre Dame	0-0	440	Not Ranked
19	Auburn	0-0	329	1
20	Mississippi State	0-0	301	17
21	Missouri	0-0	266	18
22	Georgia	0-0	260	Not Ranked
23	Florida	0-0	240	Not Ranked
24	Texas	0-0	162	Not Ranked
25	Penn State	0-0	161	Not Ranked
26	Arizona State	0-0	158	Not Ranked
27	West Virginia	0-0	149	Not Ranked
28	Utah	0-0	50	23
29	Miami (FL)	0-0	49	Not Ranked
30	Iowa	0-0	41	Not Ranked
31	Northwestern	0-0	30	Not Ranked
32	Arizona	0-0	28	Not Ranked
33	UCF	0-0	22	20
34	Michigan	0-0	19	Not Ranked
35	Air Force	0-0	15	Not Ranked
36	North Carolina	0-0	14	Not Ranked
37	Houston	0-0	13	Not Ranked
38	South Florida	0-0	9	Not Ranked
39	Hawaii	0-0	8	Not Ranked
40	Clemson	0-0	7	Not Ranked
41	Tennessee	0-0	7	Not Ranked
42	Southern Mississippi	0-0	6	Not Ranked
43	BYU	0-0	5	Not Ranked
44	North Carolina State	0-0	4	25
45	Northern Illinois	0-0	4	Not Ranked
46	Oregon State	0-0	4	Not Ranked
47	Pittsburgh	0-0	3	Not Ranked
48	Washington	0-0	3	Not Ranked
49	Nevada	0-0	1	13
50	Georgia Tech	0-0	1	Not Ranked

A-Fraud Gone Wild!

Self proclaimed bad boy Alex Rodriguez has found himself in a heap of trouble once again.  At least, that’s what we have been hearing for the past week.  Now we are getting reports that Major League Baseball isn’t going to do anything about it.  Are you kidding me?  Supposedly, ‘”He will be warned again and not lightly.”Major League Baseball investigators still want to speak with Rodriguez about his alleged involvement in the high-stakes games and are expected to do so “in the next couple of weeks,’ a source with close ties to Rodriguez told ESPNNewYork.com’s Wallace Matthews on Thursday.“  Can you say enabler?  I mean what do we have to expect now, that the New York Yankees (as money driven as most of them are) are going to discipline their own star player for something that the League as whole has no problem with?  A slap on the wrist isn’t going to keep this guy from eventually pulling a Pete Rose and being laughed out of baseball for the rest of his life.  Whose to say that some Atlantic City casino doesn’t already have their hooks in him right now?  That’s a dangerous game to play if you ask me, but when no one is there to say, “NOOOO you can’t go into that room with the illegal gambling….Yes, I mean the one with the poker table in it.”  I realize that there are not been a full investigation or conclusion as to what is exactly going on (and I doubt the actual truth will ever come out) so maybe I am wrong and have no idea what I am talking about…but it all just seems a bit much to me.  Gambling when you play professional sports is a slippery slope my friends, then second you get down, the first thought goes to point shaving.  If sports aren’t real then the people who watch them will not care.  In order for him to have gotten in trouble he probably would have had to have made a side bet at the poker table on baseball…We all know that side bets is basically small talk at the table and everyone knows A-Rod as a baseball player.  How much do you want to bet it got brought up?