Monthly Archives: May 2017

Tom Brady is designing an Aston Martin, and it can be yours for $212,000

Super Bowl,

Tom Brady is signing a new endorsement deal with Aston Martin, and part of the deal includes a curious clause: He gets to design a car.

Mens Brandon Mebane Jersey It’s reported that only 12 of the Brady-designed cars will ever be sold, which will not only make it one of the rarest cars on the market — but also hedges Aston Martin’s losses in case Brady’s car doesn’t make an impact. It’s essentially a more intelligent marketing idea than that of Powell Motors, which released the infamous The Homer in 1991.

Mens Spencer Ware Jersey Lunchables. It’s so childish, but they’re so good. I still eat them. When we met with my agents the first time, we told them This may sound stupid, but we want our first marketing deal to be for Lunchables. My favorite Lunchable is Pizza. I like the crackers, but I’m definitely a pizza guy. I’m dead-ass serious.
Earlier this week, Lunchables finally responded to his request by sending him a ton of products. Needless to say Boulware was pretty pumped that he was able to stock up on his favorite snack food.

Boulware doesn’t have any plans to upscale his diet, when asked whether or not he’d upgrade to a nice dinner, like one at Ruth’s Chris.

I might work toward that, but I’m going to stay to my roots for now, Boulware said via ESPN. I’ve been eating Lunchables for a long time. And I don’t have Ruth’s Chris money right now. All I’ve got is Lunchables money.

Shoutout to the company for hooking Boulware up.

Time to take MLB pitchers and DHs out of the batter’s box

Super Bowl,

As players begin exhibition games in Arizona and Florida, they’re dealing with a lot of change in their industry. Some of the change is good (requiring pitchers and hitters to pick up the pace). Some are bad (shrinking the strike zone and the no-pitch intentional walk, to name two).
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Glenn Dorsey Elite Jersey One change that isn’t formally on the table, but should be, is to the designated hitter rule. There absolutely needs to be a resolution. Baseball should not have two sets of rules.

From having covered Elway as a beat writer his final two seasons in Denver, I can tell you his drive to win is as great as anyone I’ve ever met in football. An insatiable thirst for success – and fear of failure – is what helped make Elway a Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback. It also pushes him to make cut-throat decisions as an executive, like firing John Fox after three straight playoff seasons and clearing out assistant coaches he’s known for decades after hiring Vance Joseph as his new head coach.

The defense that Elway and his personnel staff constructed is still championship-caliber even though a few tweaks are needed (more line depth is a must). It would be a shame to see that talent go to waste again like last season if the offense can’t carry its weight.

But there’s only so far scheme can take the Broncos. Denver needs a difference-maker under center for its best chance of winning what has become a rough-and-tumble AFC West let alone catch New England atop the conference.

Jay Cutler advises Bears: Don’t play Mitchell Trubisky if season goes downhill

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Jay Cutler’s new gig with Fox Sports doesn’t formally begin until the NFL’s 2017 preseason, but the former quarterback is already wearing his analyst’s hat.

During an appearance on ESPN Chicago’s Waddle & Silvy Show on Friday, Cutler advised the Bears against playing No. 2 overall draft pick Mitchell Trubisky should the team’s season not go well.

Tampa police officers responded to the scene and cited the driver of the Kia, Jake Balsay, for running the stop sign.

Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said in a statement that the accident occurred after Martin left the team’s facility. Martin was checked by the team’s medical staff and sent home with minor injuries, though his vehicle sustained significant damage.

Martin, who was a Pro Bowler in 2012 and 2015, will have to sit out the first three games of the 2017 season to complete a four-game suspension handed out last December for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Martin checked himself into a drug treatment facility shortly after the suspension was announced.

Licht said last week Martin has been one of the team’s more impressive players during the offseason training program.

Bolles and Butt stand out as the best picks for John Elway in this class, with immediate athletic left tackle help and an eventual starting inline tight end. The rest was a mixed bag of defensive depth and offensive change-of-pace. A linebacker would have been nice. Kelly, despite the name, is still an irrelevant flyer at the moment vs. their current young QBs.
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With Browns or not, Mitchell Trubisky best served beginning as backup QB (again)

Super Bowl,

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Mitchell Trubisky doesn’t mind if you still call him Mitch. He also doesn’t mind getting asked about the biggest knock on him as a top quarterback prospect in the 2017 NFL Draft: having only one good season as a college starter.

That attitude happens to give him the ideal mind-set to sit and develop into the fine, long-term staring NFL quarterback he has the potential to be. It also makes it a mistake for a team that drafts Trubisky in the first round to put undue pressure on him as an immediate savior.

North Carolina coach Larry Fedora, watching Trubisky perform for the last time as a Tar Heel at the school’s Pro Day on Tuesday, saw familiar humility in how he came through in front of NFL evaluators.

He’s the same guy who first walked on campus. He’s very down to earth, very humble, Fedora said. I don’t think he feels like he needs to do anything special.

Trubisky added to his strong NFL Combine performance with impressive, rapid fire in a half-hour session of routine progressions.

I tried to include all of the routes on the route tree in my script, Trubisky said. I wanted to do a couple of movement throws on the run and simulate a pocket rush so hopefully the coaches can see that I can make all of the throws.
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Manuel’s Bills haven’t been to the playoffs in the 2000s. They’ve had an ownership change and multiple coaches. Yet Manuel was somewhat of a scapegoat. Smith saw both his general manager and head coach fired in his first two years in the NFL and was looked at as a failure. Kaepernick went through multiple coaches and was viewed as part of the reason why the team went from Super Bowl contender to the second pick in the draft.

Tom Brady’s missing Super Bowl jerseys back in Boston

Super Bowl,

Tom Brady’s Super Bowl jerseys are back in Foxborough where they belong.

The two stolen jerseys worn by the Patriots quarterback during Super Bowls 49 and 51 were returned to the team Thursday after being recovered in Mexico earlier this week.

The FBI’s Boston bureau included a statement with a tweeted photo of Patriots owner Robert Kraft posing with two agents holding the jerseys:

Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston is pleased to return the jerseys worn by New England Patriots MVP Tom Brady during Super Bowl 49 and Super Bowl 51 to the New England Patriots and National Football League. We know how much this means to the Patriots and football fans everywhere, and we are honored to be able to bring these jerseys back to Foxboro.

Elite Mens Graham Gano Jersey We would also like to thank our law enforcement partners in Mexico, in particular, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, for their invaluable assistance in resolving this matter. Assistance was also provided by the security teams from the NFL and the New England Patriots, the Massachusetts State Police, and Houston Police Department.
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Authorities revealed Monday the suspected theif is Mauricio Ortega, a former executive of a newspaper in Honduras called Diario La Prensa. The paper reportedly knew he was the culprit a few days ago and fired him.

It was great to have both jerseys returned to Gillette Stadium today, Kraft said in a statement. I don’t know that any agency could have accomplished this independently, but collectively multiple agencies — both in the U.S. and in Mexico — worked together to achieve the goal of retrieving the stolen property. It is another example of the importance of teamwork and what can be accomplished when everyone works together.

Lou Gehrig’s old home for sale in New Rochelle

Super Bowl,

All four are relatively new to the organization. Fulmer is the elder ChiSox statesmen of the group. He was the No. 8 overall pick in the first round of the 2015 MLB Draft. The Sox took Burdi in the first round the next year, at No. 26 overall. The other two arrived in Chicago’s massive offseason makeover. Well, not massive in that the White Sox traded away most of their big-league team, but massive in terms of the prospects who joined the organization.

Giolito and Lopez arrived, along with pitcher Dane Dunning (a first-round pick in 2016), in a deal that sent outfielder Adam Eaton to the Nationals on Dec. 7. It was a rather stunning haul for the White Sox to get three high-level pitching prospects, though there was risk, too, because all pitching prospects are inherently risks. It was a big gamble on upside. Dunning has a 0.45 ERA in three starts this year for Single-A Kannapolis, which is about 30 miles north of Charlotte, up I-85.

There’s a house available in New Rochelle, and whoever buys it might end up being the luckiest person on the face of the earth.
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The old home of former Yankees legend Lou Gehrig is up for sale in New York, the residence that Gehrig bought for his parents and stayed in until he married in 1933.

The house previously sold at an auction for $300,000, but requires hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations. Real estate agent Arthur Scinta clearly thinks it’s worth the price, though, just for the historical value alone.

You can imagine Mrs. Gehrig down here scrubbing his uniforms, scrubbing the grass stains out, Scinta told CBS New York.

Christian Covington Authentic Jersey There have been attempts to turn the house into a historical landmark, but the previous owner rejected it.

Perhaps the Yankees might be interested in the purchase, although they’ve been pretty stingy lately.

49ers’ Jed York explains why he wants to see Jim Harbaugh, thank him privately

Super Bowl,

The 49ers are still recovering from the well-documented disaster that was the end of the Jim Harbaugh era. As its former coach builds a collegiate powerhouse at Michigan, San Francisco is on its third coach in three years since Harbaugh and team owner Jed York mutually agreed to part ways at the end of the 2014 season.

York, who has caught much of the blame for the crumbling of a franchise that just a few years ago was a few yards away from a Super Bowl title, naturally regrets the way things ended with Harbaugh.

York recently opened up on The MMQB Podcast with Peter King when asked about the break-up. The team owner would love a chance to sit down and chat with his former coach.
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It’s about value and upside, and on that front, a second-round pick makes sense. Jackson is taking another flier, and he didn’t have to trade up to take that flier like the Chiefs did with Pat Mahomes II in the first round. That second-round tag matters. It’s not a first-round pick.

Mahomes vs. Kizer is at best a coin flip in terms of projecting who will have the better NFL career. The Browns used their fourth pick in the draft on a quarterback. It wasn’t an emotional gotta-have-a-quarterback pick such as Brady Quinn, Brandon Weeden and Johnny Manziel.

Draft picks: Wisconsin OLB T.J. Watt, USC WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tennessee CB Cameron Sutton, Pittsburgh RB James Conner, Tennessee QB Josh Dobbs, Utah DB Brian Allen, Louisville S Colin Holba, Western Michigan OLB Keion Adams

Game Kids Ryan Quigley Jersey Watt adds even more pass-rush pop to a loaded linebacker corps, and Sutton and Allen are keys for secondary depth. Offensively, Smith-Schuster and Conner serve as tough, physical reserves in the Mike Tomlin mold, too. Getting Dobbs in the fourth round to possibly succeed Ben Roethlisberger is a steal. The knock comes from not tapping into a good class of tight ends in the early-to-mid rounds.

Giants QB Geno Smith claims he’s ‘100’ after ACL surgery

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Geno Smith has an uphill road to playing time with the Giants this fall as he enters a crowded quarterback picture while coming off major knee surgery, but he’s doing his best to project confidence.

“I’ve enjoyed my time at Nauset,” Sherman said in a statement, via the Cape Cod Times. “I believe the kids not only learned a lot about football but about life as well. I believe they learned some core values that will serve them well. Ultimately, that is what high school sports is all about.”

Sherman, 62, is planning to open a new athletics training facility called Total Athletics Cape Cod this summer.

A Massachusetts native, Sherman was head coach of the Packers from 2000-05 while also handling general manager duties during the 2001-04 seasons. He went 57-39 in Green Bay, making the playoffs four consecutive years, but was fired after going 4-12 in 2005.

After a stint as a Texans assistant, Sherman took over the Texas A&M program in 2008 and went 25-25 in four seasons with the Aggies. He then spent two years as the Dolphins’ offensive coordinator before returning to the high school ranks at Nauset in 2015.

The Patriots still have a chance to bring back Blount with an unusual free-agent tender, but his opportunity to remain their early-down and red zone “power” back is gone. New England stole Gillislee from Buffalo with an offer the Bills couldn’t match. It also signed Rex Burkhead and was auditioning Christine Michael.

Gillislee, who led the NFL with 5.7 yards per carry and scored nine touchdowns as a Bills backup last season, is better than Blount for the tough yards between the tackles. He was well worth $6.4 million over two years after Burkhead got $3.15 million for 2017 alone.

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NFL draft grades 2017: Falcons’ picks could keep them atop of the NFC South

Super Bowl,

The 2017 NFL Draft came to a close Saturday, and all four teams from the NFC South selected solid prospects who could one day morph into NFL superstars.

The Atlanta Falcons, last year’s Super Bowl runner-ups, already have a first-rate offense led by quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones. So, Atlanta didn’t need to draft offensive players. However, its defense needed some major upgrades at linebacker and in the secondary.
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The Utah Jazz got back Rudy Gobert on Sunday, but they were without Gordon Hayward who was suffering from food poisoning. So who stepped up? None other than Joe Johnson. He finished the night with 28 points, 13 of those coming in fourth quarter.

While Johnson was big late, there were several role players who stepped up big in the absence of Gordon Hayward. Rodney Hood finished with 18 points, Derrick Favors with 17, and George Hill with 13. Rudy Gobert finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds in his return.
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The Bulls went into Boston and won the first two games of this series. Then the Celtics went to Chicago and won the next two. So now this No. 1 vs. No. 8 seed matchup is all tied up and will be a best-of-three series moving forward. Two of those three games are in Boston but at this point, no home team has won a game. Paul Flannery nailed it in his Sunday Shootaround:

This is a series where one can say with a straight face that an injury to Rajon Rondo changed its entire complexion. It’s a series where Gerald Green can start a must-win game. If we are living in basketball’s age of reason, this series has been a satire worthy of Swift.
Game 5 is Wednesday in Boston.

Chris Paul’s brilliance forces a Clippers-Jazz Game 7

Super Bowl,

Elite Wilt Chamberlain Jersey Chris Paul led the limping, undermanned Los Angeles Clippers to a Game 6 win in enemy territory to save their season. Paul did the heavy lifting with 29 points and eight assists while shooting better than 50 percent.

Do you really care that he has never been to a conference finals?

Paul didn’t ice the game in the fourth quarter on a long, contested jumper, which one his one sin in the frame. He scored just six points with two assists in the final 12 minutes, his quietest fourth quarter yet, given that he came into the game averaging more than 11 points on an excellent 58 percent True Shooting Percentage.

Remember that time the Atlanta Hawks won player of the month with their entire starting lineup in 2015? Well their Game 4 win over the Wizards was kind of like that. With seven players scoring in double figures, including their entire starting five, they tied up the series and will now head to Washington for Game 5.
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There may be a temptation to dismiss all of this with a wave of the hand and claiming that nothing matters but the post-season. To a degree, sure, it doesn’t matter how well you played during the regular season so long as you make it to the playoffs. Ultimately, every team is looking to take home the Cup. But it would be shortsighted to see how this team performed under Boudreau and not be encouraged. This team was a legitimate contender this year that ran into a hot team and a hot goalie. The pieces are there for this team to contend next season as well. Boudreau, and his staff, are a big reason for that.