Scott Cordischi On Sports: Let The Games Begin!
Thursday, September 06, 2012
Sitting here wondering if the Patriots are preparing for an offense that features Tom Brady and ten tight ends?.......
-And don’t ask me to pronounce Michael Hoomanawanui!
-Maybe it’s the fact that it’s still warm outside, but it just doesn’t feel like football season yet, does it?
-A lot of people are predicting that Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning could win NFL MVP honors this year. That seems like a bit of a stretch to me considering that Manning didn’t play at all last year due to a neck injury AND the fact that he is playing for a new team. Still, I hope those prognosticators are correct because Manning is one of my fantasy quarterbacks.
-Gronk is my fantasy tight end which is great. But I can’t say that I’m thrilled with the rest of my team.
-Then again, when you draw the 12th pick in the draft in a 12-team league, those are the consequences.
-Predictions for the 2012 NFL season: New England, Baltimore, Houston and Denver win their respective divisions in the AFC while Philadelphia, New Orleans, Green Bay and San Francisco win their divisions in the NFC. I’ll also take the Steelers and the Titans as Wild Card teams in the AFC and Atlanta and Dallas in the NFC.
-You read that correctly Giants fans! I’m predicting that Big Blue does not make it to the playoffs this year.
-Did you see where Forbes magazine released its list of most valuable NFL franchises? As expected, the Dallas Cowboys were #1 estimated to be worth $2.1 billion. The New England Patriots are the second most valuable franchise at $1.635 billion. The Jacksonville Jaguars were last on the list of 32 NFL franchises at a value of $770 million.
-Just ahead of Jacksonville in 30th place was the Oakland Raiders at $785 million. Al Davis must be rolling around in his grave.
-I hate to say this Dolphins fans, but the 2012 season could very well replicate the 2007 season for Miami when the team went 1-15 under Cam Cameron.
-I laugh every time I hear someone say that an owner paid too much to buy a professional sports franchise. Last time I checked, none of them seemed to be declining in value. Take the Cowboys, for instance. Jerry Jones bought the team for $140 million in 1989. They are now worth $2.1 billion. That’s a return of 715%. Try getting that in the stock market.
-I’m glad that Tom Brady has confidence in his offensive line because I sure as heck don’t after watching them this preseason. Repeat after me: “In Dante we trust!”
-Speaking of Brady, I’ll be curious to see how much he and wide receiver Brandon Lloyd are on the same page in their week 1 game at Tennessee Sunday. It sure seems to me like TB 12 still prefers Gronk, Hernandez and Welker over everyone else.
-I had planned on keeping this column all about football this week but I must applaud embattled Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine for sticking up for himself Wednesday. On WEEI’s “Big Show,” co-host Glen Ordway asked Valentine if he had “checked out” on the season? Bobby V’s response? "What an embarrassing thing to say," he said. "If I were there right now, I'd punch you right in the mouth. Ha. How's that sound? Is that like I checked out? What an embarrassing thing. Why would somebody even -- that's stuff that a comic strip person would write. If someone's here, watching me go out at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, watching me put in the right relief pitchers to get a win, putting on a hit-and-run when it was necessary, talking to the guys after the game in the food room -- how could someone in real life say that?"
Kudos to Valentine for blasting Ordway for that ridiculous question. Don’t get me wrong, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Glen and the job that he has done over the years, but that question was entirely uncalled for. What Ordway ought to do is to ask Dustin Pedroia if he felt that his public display of disrespect for Valentine back in April set the tone in the Red Sox clubhouse for no one to respect the manager making it essentially a no-win situation for Valentine?
-It’s too bad that Valentine’s players don’t show that same type of fire on the diamond. If they did, maybe they wouldn’t be 11 games under .500 right now.
-Barrington’s Brad Faxon heads back out onto the Champions Tour for the final four events of the regular season looking to climb up into the top 30 so that he can be a part of the Schwab Cup Championship. Faxon is currently 41st in the Schwab Cup Standings heading into this week’s Pacific Links Hawaii Championship.
-Not the decision Friar fans were hoping for from the NCAA Eligibility Center on Ricky Ledo. Still, Ledo plans on staying at PC for at least this year and next.
-In regards to the NCAA Eligibility Center, the father of two division one student-athletes said that the process is extremely quick once you have submitted the student’s high school transcripts to the NCAA. He said that his kids were cleared in what seemed like a matter of 20 minutes.
-It’s put up or shut up time for Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys, a seemingly talented team that underachieves each year.
-And watching the trials and tribulations of the NY Jets this season may be even more enjoyable for Pats fans than watching your own team win each week.
-NFL fans have to love the fact that we will now have games on Thursday nights, Sunday early and late afternoon, Sunday night and Monday night this year.
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