jimmy no nose

Part of me feels like the Red Sox are just testing Scott Boras and may take one last shot if Boras comes back with a "Mark really wants to play in Boston" pitch. You never really know what kind of numbers agents are throwing out vs. what is actually being offered (see the Rafael Furcal signing where it turns out the agent was telling something close to the truth to the Dodgers).

The Steelers gave out their team Rookie of the Year award today to non-drafted Duke LB Patrick Bailey for coming in third on the team with 12 special teams tackles. I wish I could have seen his reaction, it had to be surprising. Their draft class produced 2 players on IR, 1 on the practice squad, 3 that have dressed for a total of 2 games, and Limas Sweed who has seen very limited action as a 4th WR. It hasn't really made a difference on-field, and they still look like a fairly promising group with Rashard Mendenhall, Limas Sweed, and Dennis Dixon, but is there another team in the league that has gotten so little production out of a rookie class?

One of the conditions was if the team won 10+ games and he played at least 53% of defensive snaps. That one's pretty much a done deal too. Not sure about the other two.

Furcal to the Dodgers 3 years $33 million looks like a done deal. Apparently he had the Braves completely believing his contract was all but signed, had an agreement faxed to him, then used that to pull a new offer out of the Dodgers. And his agent isn't even Scott Boras.

I thought this was stupid until I saw that it was, in fact, an expression of his undying love for the movie Teen Wolf. I'm all for that.

4 of the top 5 in interceptions made the Pro Bowl. I bet Gus Frerotte feels left out.

Are the Braves planning on trading Yunel Escobar? Maybe Kelly Johnson? I assume if you have Escobar Furcal has to play second base, maybe Johnson moves back to the outfield?

I haven't followed WWE in quite a while, but I went to Raw tonight as a last minute fill-in and some of the people I went with were talking about how apparently Chinese Democracy was supposed to be the official theme of Sunday's PPV and usually they play the song a few times and mention it repeatedly on the PPVs, but Chinese Democracy ended up not even being played on the show. Is there a story there?

The best part of the whole shoe-throwing thing is when the Iraqi Prime Minister swats at the second shoe. If he would have somehow managed to catch it out of the air it might have been one of the great moments in history.

They suck and everything, but I just realized that the Bengals have quietly played the NFC East unbelievably well. They beat the Redskins today, tied the Eagles a few weeks back, took the Giants to OT, and were within 2 points of the Cowboys inside 2 minutes. How is that even possible?

The Giants (at least on offense) are playing like a team who already clinched home field. Unfortunately for them the Panthers are still hanging around.

If you're going to argue that the refs ruined the game on that end zone call then go back and watch the play on the Ravens drive before the Steeler TD drive where they kept showing the replays of the "great block" against James Harrison where one arm was around his neck and the other was on his back and explain how it isn't a hold.

Haynesworth's knee....ouch. He did at least walk off with some help though.

How did they not try that FG? Bironas already hit one longer in the same end. Ridiculous.

Looks Titans-Texans is going to come down to a 50 yard FG attempt. Houston will still get the ball back with some time if it's good though.

What does Tennessee have to do with the Ravens? I guess it just leaves them something to play for next week against Pittsburgh which would benefit the Ravens in the division race. It actually means a lot for the Steelers though, as a Tennessee loss means winning out locks up the #1 seed which they probably didn't see coming.

I forgot the Colts singed "The Dump Truck" Najeh Davenport. Seeing his slow motion kick return brings back memories.

Detroit just scored a TD to go down 2 in the 4th quarter. Conversion could tie it. EDIT--And it does...

Andre Johnson is tearing apart the Tennessee defense right now. 154 yards in the first half. The rest of the team has something like 20 receiving yards, but it doesn't really matter.

Axl went out chatting again last night at ChineseDemocracy.com. I think this ranks up there with some of the weirder stuff that Axl's done, but it's pretty cool. I think he subtly indicates that that "Checkmate" clip that leaked a while back is part of the song "The General". Weird that we only got full versions of songs that ended up on CD and only that little piece of the song that he's saving for later. http://www.chinesedemocracy.com/forum/guns...m-t40966.0.html

Apparently Manny Ramirez is threatening to retire because he's so upset about the lack of interest he's generating and wants a "serious" offer immediately. That might be effective if anyone in the world believed him.

I thought for sure there's be something else in the trade, which there still may be. Maybe they're just freeing up money to make sure they can lock up Ben Sheets or something?

I didn't realize until today, but a Ravens win over the Steelers could create some fairly ridiculous tie-breaker scenarios. I won't go into every possible situation, but if Baltimore beat Pittsburgh then lose at Dallas and the Steelers lose at Tennessee, then the two teams beat the Jaguars and Browns week 17 then they tie on head to head, division, common games, and conference. The tie breaker would end up strength of victory which would come down to which group has the better record between Baltimore's Miami-Oakland-Philly group and Pittsburgh's New England-San Diego-Dallas group. Turns out that Eagles tie could end up being the AFC North tie breaker.

In trade news: Edwin Jackson to the Tigers for Matt Joyce -- Unconfirmed. I like this deal. Pirates C Ronny Paulino to Philadelphia for Jason Jamarillo -- Confirmed. I don't know about this deal from either side. I guess Paulino's gotten interest from a few teams, but I really don't like him. It was pretty clear Jamarillo didn't have much of a future with the Phillies, but I really don't think Paulino's an upgrade.

When did he suffer the injury? Was it on that first punt return where he just got thrown out of the pile? He was down for a while then, but he was back playing not long after.