Where's NFL Headed?

The Super Bowl is history and the game will be recorded for those who do such things to rank it on the all time list. I think maybe top ten but that's about it.

Today both the NFL and the Player's Unions are jockeying back and forth trying to give their spin on who is trying the best to meet half way and end the upcoming labor dispute in the NFL. I can tell you right now I am against any union where the individuals have their own personal contracts and then have a union has a contract on top of that. Just doesn't make since to me. Seems a union everyone ought to be working on the same pay scale.

I find it very hard to believe that either side can get sympathy because one side wants to cut the insurance or even the owners who say the clubs are not making enough money. They use as an example the Green Bay Packers who made less than 10 million dollars profit last year. Am I suppose to feel sorry for them only making 10 million. I find it hard for Joe average fan to care for all the poor mouthing from both sides when they all even the last guy on the roster made $460,000 last year.

The contract ends March fourth and I doubt we will see the first couple of preseason games anyway because the players hate them so why not sit, but by the third preseason game then they are effecting their playing shape for the real season. I suspect for the next five month all we will hear is one side jawing over how poor the other side is bargaining and it will be just like political campaigns we will be so glad when they are over.

I have had 24 hours to chew on last night's National Anthem and having been in front of TV camera's or like the state championship basketball game last year that Wes and I did on the radio last year when everyone that wasn't at the game was listening all over the world there is a lot of pressure on any person to preform.

111 million people were watching last night and who knows but Christine Agularia just might have choked in front of the world. She probably knew the words but the pressure ate her alive when it was time to go. I hope the NFL didn't let her go on last night not evening knowing whether she knew the words or not. Agularia is on the backslide in her career and she may have been hoping that if she did well last night that her career would get a jump start over again. I suspect you have seen the last of her.

Super Bowl Was Super

Three turnovers by the Pittsburgh Steelers lead to 21 Green Bay Packer points and Pittsburgh could not catch up but they sure did make it interesting as the Packers beat the Steelers 31-25.

Aaron Rogers continued his play as the top quarterback in the NFL as he tossed three touchdown passes while Ben Roethlisberger had his second of three so so Super Bowls. The Packer nation has now won four Super Bowls in the forty five year history of the big game while Pittsburgh loses for the second time in eight tries.

Despite the three turnovers that Pittsburgh had the biggest flub of the night was Christine Agularia horrible rendition of the National Anthem. She compounded her effort by forgetting the words. There have been years in the past where the National Anthem has been recorded ahead of time and the singer lip sinc the live version. This should have been one of those times.

Today Carolina played their first game since the departure of Larry Drew. I think in the long run Carolina will be hurt by his quitting the team. If there is one thing obvious at this point the team has played much better since his demotion to second team but why in the world would any player quit with over half the season done? It isn't like he can finish the season somewhere else.

There are rumors that his mother has been a constant pain in the butt for Roy Williams. I think I have said this before on this web site that parents are the worse judges of the talent of their children. Whether he was starting or not he was still playing more than Marshall was. This looks to be a case of selfish parents wanting to ride the coat tail of a son that they thought would make millions in the NBA. This despite his father being and NBA assistant coach. You would think he would know better.

Too bad for he will forever be known as a quitter.

I hope you had a chance to either be there live last night or watched it on Fox Sports Carolina but the hockey game between Atlanta and the Hurricanes was as good as hockey can get. Carolina since Christmas has played themselves into position to be in the playoffs and last night if they beat Atlanta in regulation they would have past the Thrashers. It turn out to go over time before the Hurricanes won and are now in a flat tie with Atlanta for the last playoff spot.

I really like what the Hurricanes have put together with their team this year. They are young and hungry and right now the have the next sex symbol of the NHL in 18 year old Jeff Skinner who has become the heart throb of the NHL for young ladies.

Believe It Or Not It's Baseball Season

There is and old saying, it's five o'clock somewhere. Today was the start of college baseball for some just about everybody except Division 1 baseball. If you dared to go outside today I doubt there was any baseball in North Carolina.

Juco baseball season cranked up last weekend and now with Brian Goodwin playing center field for Miami Dade Community College they have already played five games heading into today's game. It will not be easy keeping up with Brian way down in Miami as I was on their website tonight and they do not have any stats posted of any games.

Thursday major league baseball held the Hot Stove League Mock draft of eligible players for the upcoming draft in June. Brian Goodwin was picked in the first round by Tampa Bay Rays. Another Nash County prospect getting a good look this spring will be Xavier Macklin who is in his junior year at NCA&T. If Benton Moss has any kind of senior year like his first three high school seasons he may be drafted as well.

Moss very well might be looking like Brian Goodwin and Tyler Joyner after their senior high school seasons and it may come down to whether the pro baseball teams feel they can sign him right out of high school. I am hearing Benton is headed to Carolina regardless of his draft status. I hope I am not putting a hex on Benton Moss when I say this but I believe Benton will graduate from Carolina and will play for the Tar Heels all four years. He would be the first Gryphon to do so in quite a while.

I not saying I think he's going to be a great pitcher in college because who knows what the future brings but Benton seems to have the focus to be able to reach his goals in life where some before him didn't. We hear the term "IT" all the time about some players . I think Benton has "IT" mentally and is a dog gone good athlete too. Benton is a born leader and you don't become captain of your travel league team by just playing good.

Browsing the Campbell Website tonight I found out something about last year that I did not know. Ben Fish made all Atlantic Sun All Academic team last season. A belated congratulations on that award Ben.

I'll be on TV starting at 2.30 Sunday afternoon with the 2011 Relay For Life show. Later Sunday night the Rocky Mount Prep -Mount Zion basketball from this week will be on the Stretchlon Sports Show.

Telegram Hex

Is there such a thing as the "Telegram" Hex much like the "Sports Illustrated" hex on teams that make the front cover of that magazine. Yesterday the Telegram ran an article on Nash Central's boys basketball team and tonight they lose by 29 at Northern Nash 76-47. DeShawn Freeman lead the way for Northern pumping in 37. Looks with a week to go that he would be my pick for player of the year in the Big East. The Lady Knights had an easy time in a win over the Nash Central girls.

Monday night at Fike Rocky Mount boys beat Fike by what shall we say was a comfortable score. Tonight Rocky Mount has their running shoes on and hits the century mark for the first time this year taking down Fike 100-74. Kenyatta Bullock lead the Gryphon attack with 21 but every body got in the action.

The Lady Gryphons kept their unbeaten conference season going beating Fike 63-54. Fike has given Rocky Mount all they wanted in both of their battles this week. J'Kyra Brown sporting a shiner from Tuesday night's game at Hunt lead the way scoring 18 while Jameka Ruffin lead the Lady Golden Demons with 19.

Back during the fall on this website I reported that one of the greatest names in the history of Rocky Mount High School had cancer. I had been hearing rumors in the past few days of good news coming for Danny Talbott. Today I called Danny to be given the great news from him that his cancer is in remission. He must go back to Chapel Hill of February 14th for a Stem Cell Transplant. He has finished all his Chemo treatments and he and I enjoyed about a ten minute conversation.

I just want to tell you whether you are a believer in the Lord God All Mighty as I do or not but there is power in prayer. The entire Gryphon and Black Bird nation has had Danny in our prayers. I enjoyed listening to Danny talk about his faith and of course about Carolina during our talk. We need to keep him in our prayers because the job is not done, he is winning the battle but that dirty old BIG C fights hard battles.

You will have to endure me once again this year on WHIG-TV as I will for I think the 7th year host the Relay For Life Countdown Show. The past decade it has been on Monday nights at 6.00pm but starting Sunday we will be live at 2.30pm and it will be replayed at 6.00pm on Tuesday night. They wanted to do it live on Tuesdays but I told them they would have to go without me. Tuesday night is ball games of some sort whether basketball or baseball between now and the Relay in April.

Super Bowl Pick Time

It is the Friday before the big game. If you have to be one of those people who has to work on Sunday night you have probably have heard from management that there is no call ins Sunday night saying you are sick. You fill out a vacation day in advance or show up for work, the only excuse for not working Sunday night is death.

The Super Bowl is just about like the first day of hunting season. It has become so big that it needs to be a national holiday. This year for the first time in a while the big game has two evenly match teams which makes this one of the best match ups ever. Not only are they two of the most storied franchises in the NFL but as this season has unfolded they are truly the two best teams in the NFL this year.

If you look at the past there always seems to be one team that was not suppose to make it but because they got hot at the right time survived to make it to the Super Bowl. This year almost looks like a dream match up. The only thing hindering this Super Bowl from being one of the best ever is the weather. Since the game is play inside in the Billion dollars Jerry Jones stadium by game time the weather will not be a factor. If you were lucky enough to have a ticket the only missing ingredient this week is the carnival atmosphere that goes along with any big event like the Super Bowl. Everything has been pushed inside.

This game highlights the hottest quarterback in the NFL in Aaron Rogers. He is the guy who replaced Brett Farve. I have not heard of any demonstrations during any Packer games over the last three years where people in Green Bay wanted Brett Farve back. Rogers has become the exception to the rule. It is suppose to take ten quarterbacks to forget Farve but the Packers only needed one. Maybe that is why the Packers showed the aging Farve the door in order to get Rogers playing time.

Now that Rogers has tossed the fifteen hundred passes minimum to be rated on the all time passing list he is first in QB rating. His three playoff games to date are the highest ratings of all time by far. To this point in his short career Aaron Rogers is making Brett Farve look like the JV quarterback of Packer history.

The other side of the line of scrimmage there is Ben Roethlisberger. He is more famous for his off the field antics than on the field but you have to give it to Big Ben. Somehow or other he weasels out of off the field trouble just like he evades a pass rush during games. He is more effective when in trouble because he is shifty enough that he side steps to freedom just long enough to put a dagger in the other teams heart.

Both of these defenses can crush a quarterback. The Steelers have the guy with the hair Troy Pala Mala what ever his name is that catches more passes than the team that is suppose to be catching the ball. They also have the leading money loser in the NFL for crushing quarterbacks. The Packers are just as good on defense as offense only just you have never heard of many of them.

This Super Bowl to me looks like one of the best ever. It probably will not be because one defense will pick up a fumble and score and what looked like a good game will become one sided.

This is one game that I don’t care one way or the other. I don’t have a hate for either team. If I had to give you my opinion theses two teams are teams like you wished the entire NFL was like. Green Bay is owned by the people of the city while Pittsburgh is a mill town that has survived when the steel industry went to China.

Boy this is a tough game to call. I just have this feeling that Pittsburgh is going to make Aaron Rogers very uncomfortable. In the back of my mind this is one of those this Pittsburgh team has been to the Super Bowl three times with this group while this is the first time for this Green Bay group, Pittsburgh should win but like last year when Indy should have won. I’m taking the Packers.

Give It Your All

Fans want to win every game by 100 points if possible. We all know that is not going to happen because the team on the other side is giving their all just like you hope your team is doing. Last night the boo birds were were heard during the game between N C State and Virginia Tech. Once again last night State played most of the game as if they cared less what the out come will be.

Once a little life seemed to penetrate the souls of the Wolfpack they played as if the game mattered to them just as much as the fans who paid to see the game. Toward the end when every thing but the final score had been settled Javi Gonzales dived after a ball hussling after it but the ball still rolled out of bounds. The crowd that was left gave Javi and ovation for the hussle. I thought right away sitting home and hearing that ovation that we as fans want our team to give us all they have when they play. Wins seem to come more frenquently when there is hussle and desire which is what us fans watching don't see enough of in Raleigh.

The halfway point is this weekend in ACC basketball and Duke last night regained a half game lead over Carolina in the standings. All this talk about the ACC being down this year is probably right but it's still Duke and Carolina at the top. If you look at any conference in any sport there seems to always be the old reliables near the top. In the Big 12 football it is always Texas and Oklahoma.

Today there is a great article on Ally Glover the goalie for Northern Nash soccer team that signed yesterday with ECU. Nick Cammarota of the "Rocky Mount Telegram" did a great job on the story.

The next to last Friday night of the high school basketball season happens tomorrow. Rocky Mount lost two players during the Hunt lost Tuesday with injuries. It is hard enough to win any game but when you lose two players in the middle of a game those type of things is hard to overcome. J'Kyra Brown came away in the girls game with a black eye. It is getting late in the season to not be at full strength every game.

Gryphons Fall At Hunt

Three weeks ago when Hunt beat the Gryphons in Rocky Mount I walked out of the gym saying that that was the best Hunt team I have seen in the more than 15 years that I have lived in the area. Since then they have proven that they are for real having only lost to Nash Central since the Rocky Mount victory. Every body else has done that too in the past three weeks.

Last night the Gryphons traveled to Hunt, for the Gryphons it was a fight for any hope of winning the conference regular season championship it was a must game. Two losses already and trailing both Hunt and Nash Central who have only one loss each another loss would just about cook the Gryphons of any championship aspirations.

When the dust had settled Hunt wins a physical match up with the Gryphons and stay equal with Nash Central while Rocky Mount loses their third conference game and now have three games left to play to hold on to third place.

The girls won again keeping their undefeated conference season intact and when you think about this the Lady Gryphons have lost to only one team this year and that is South Central. 59-52 at Rocky Mount and 59-55 at Central. Central is tall and quick. Their speed matched the Lady Gryphons and the difference in both games is the inside play by Central’s tall girls making it difficult to score inside late in games. Two of the last three conference games for the Ladies are against the second place Northern Nash and third place Fike teams. This Friday night the Ladies play Fike for the second time this week. Undefeated regular season is not a given as there are two really good road blocks standing in the way.

The Tar Heels of North Carolina made the folks who root for the Wolfpack take a step back last night and wonder. Were we that bad or is Carolina coming on? Last night the Tar heels beat Boston College in Boston by 32. Now that 20 point loss Saturday in Chapel Hill may not sting as much. Yes it does.

The Heels are charging right now and it looks like they are having fun which is something I don’t think they could say at all last year or the first month of the season this year. What a wonderful thing a point guard that can get the ball to the right people at the right time to score. Since Carolina put Marshall not only the starter but even more playing time Carolina has been a different team. The Duke-Carolina game this weekend isn’t a given to Duke any more.

The Super Bowl chit chat is in full swing as Tuesday was Media day and about a million people pretending to be “The Press’ converged on Dallas/Forth worth to pretend to act like they were covering the game for their company. The biggest complaint for the media was it was too cold to play golf with snow and sleet falling in the area.

Today is National Signing Day in football for high school football players fortunate enough to be able to get a free education playing football in college. I am sure the area will have some really good signings but the top signing this week is Andrew Morales signing with Duke in soccer. Go luck to everyone who has the privileged to sign any athletic scholarship