You're Fired!

Dan Leone was an employee for the Eagles. He was fired for making comments about the Eagles and their off-season departures. In particular the releasing of Brian Dawkins sparked Leone to post a status comment saying…”Dan is [expletive] devastated about Dawkins signing with Denver ... Dam Eagles R Retarted!!” After deleting the comment, the Eagles fired him of his job with the Eagles association as the west gate chief.

I understand why Leone did this and I think he shouldn’t have gotten fired for doing what he did. He like many fans wanted to vent on how he felt. The guy deleted the status comment after he met with Eagles front office and he still got fired by over the phone (one of the worst ways to get fired). I remember when the Packers were thinking about trading Favre to the Jets. I knew that I wrote some irate things on my status bar like “Ted Thompson doesn’t know what he’s doing and he sucks” (I didn’t write that actually, but something along those lines). I wrote that because that was how I felt, that was my instant knee jerk reaction to what was going on.

I hate the fact that the Eagles fired the guy about saying something and that the
Eagles met with him and he deleted it after that meeting. The Eagles fired him because he spoke up about how he felt. What, people can’t express themselves. Don’t people have the freedom of speech? I bet there are more people who are working with the Eagles who feel the same way Leone did, but they didn’t post it online for the entire world to see. Anyway, only Leone’s friends would’ve seen his status bar post. Now since this story has made into the public airways of the radio, print, and television, the Eagles have drawn more attention to themselves. Great job guys, before maybe only about 100-200 of Leone friends would’ve known about his comments, now the entire world knows. This was a bad way of handling this entire fiasco.

Another note, Leone only worked for the Eagles for the past six years as a west gate chief. He doesn’t get paid that much for that job. He must have another job because you can’t make a living from doing that for only 8 homes games once every Sunday or Monday per week. He worked there only part time. For all we might know, he can be a college student paying off his bills or what not. I wish the guy could get his job back. What the Eagles did was wrong in my opinion.

The Best Football Movies According to Me

Yesterday was a slow day for football news in my opinion aside from Terrell Owens getting released from the Cowboys. Nothing yesterday caught my attention. So I did this instead:

The Best Football Movies:
1. Friday Night Lights
2. The Express
3. Any Given Sunday
4. Rudy
5. Remember the Titans
6. We are Marshall
7. Jerry Maguire
8. Gridiron Gang
9. Radio
10. Brian’s Song

A Lone Star

Last year, The Cowboys ended their 2008 season at 9-7, missing the playoffs. Today, the Cowboys have released Terrell Owens from the roster. After last year’s disappointing season, moral and character issues were a big problem for the team in the locker room. During the 2008 season, Owens was in the spotlight accusing Tony Romo was distancing himself away from him and creating more passing plays with TE Jason Witten. Owens also was very critical of the offensive play calling and critical of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.

I was watching Sports Center around 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time when I heard the news. I was shocked at first because I didn’t think Jerry Jones would be able to have the guts to release him. Let’s remember that Jones was the one who really wanted Owens on the team’s roster, a few years back. He gave him big money to come play for the Cowboys. I thought Jones would keep him there until Owens retired as a Cowboy. Last season, Jones brought in Roy Williams from the Lions for a first round draft pick plus third and sixth round draft picks for the 2009 draft, and a seventh round pick in the 2010 draft. Jones has invested a lot into Williams hoping to be the guy to compliment Owens. Well, that didn’t work out too well. Williams only had 19 receptions for 198 yards and 1 touchdown. On a side note, Owens begged for the ball and for more catches when he saw he wasn’t getting enough grabs last season. So how could Williams flourish with Owens? I think with the release of Owens, it will help Williams next season into becoming the main guy and Patrick Crayton into a secondary WR and Miles Austin filling into the slot position. Let’s not forget that the Cowboys still have Jason Witten who is an oversized WR playing TE.

Where will TO go now? To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I was looking at the teams in the NFL and I couldn’t find a team that would want him. I know someone will pick him up because the guy can still play and is a big threat for defenses. Maybe New England will pick him up because I think Belichick can handle the guy. I don’t know if the Pats will give him all the cash to come and play in New England. The guy does want to win a ring and the best place to do that would be New England. Whoever does hire him, they need to be preparing for TO. Owens might come into the team’s facility all ready to go and ready to work. He’ll be a team player for awhile, but once the team begins to struggle, he will jump ship and criticize the team. Once he doesn’t get all the grabs, he’ll criticize the team and coach’s game plan. We know controversy surrounds TO wherever he goes. He’s that big blue bug light that attracts all those bugs from getting zapped. He loves to be the center of attention. We all know what happened in San Francisco and Philly. He has had grudges with all of his quarterbacks. He is a problem, and I would not be surprised to see him on the free agency block for awhile. Right now, both Terrell Owens and Marvin Harrison are free agents. If I had to pick one of them to be on my team, I would pick Harrison because of his character. Owens is a great player, but he needs to fix his whole image that people perceive him to be.

Leonhard flies to the Jets

Rex Ryan is bringing in ex-Baltimore Raven safety Jim Leonhard. This is the second player Coach Ryan has brought to the Jets from his days as the defensive coordinator with the Ravens. “I am extremely excited to become a New York Jet,” Leonhard said in a statement. “Obviously, to be reunited with Coach Ryan and Coach [Mike] Pettine on the defensive side of the ball is a great opportunity. I am really excited to get in there this first year with Coach Ryan and hopefully help do some great things.”

I like the deal. So far with what Rex Ryan has done is not bad. The Jet’s defense is looking like it will be very good next season. So far they’ve acquired Bart Scott, Lito Sheppard, and Jim Leonhard, all solid players. I haven’t seen too much of Leonhard play in games, but I did see him in two games where he stuck his head into tackles and made key interceptions in games. The guy can play and is not afraid to stick his nose. Leonhard was undrafted like Bart Scott and the guy is 5-foot-8. Man, I’m 5-foot-7 and the guy plays safety. One interception I saw from him was in the playoff game against the Dolphins last season, I saw the guy launch himself up in the air for the INT. To me, Leonhard is one of those unspoken players of the game who is still emerging (maybe I’m giving him too much praise).

Overall, in a much bigger picture, I like what the Jets are doing. They brought a defensive guy as their head coach and he’s been bulking up that defense. Rex Ryan’s best asset he brings to the game is his defensive knowledge and play calling ability. Nowadays, defense is key and it does win championships. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago, offense was what won games, but times have changed. Just throwing the ball up in the air because you know your WR can catch any pass for a TD, just doesn’t work anymore. You can score all the points against a bad defense, but once you play a real great defense, then you’re gonna lose. Those pass plays won’t be completed as often, as to when you were playing a poor defense. You might score once or twice against a good defense, but once their offense goes out there and they score on you to match your score…what now? There is good chance, that good defense will eventually stop that offense and win the game in the end. Look what happened to the Pats in the Superbowl game against the Giants.

The Best Free Agency Moves so Far

The Best Free Agency Moves.

1. Chiefs- Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel
2. Seahawks- T.J. Houshmandzadeh
3. Broncos- Brian Dawkins, Jabar Gaffeny, Correll Buckhalter
4. Redskins- Albert Haynesworth
5. Giants- Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard
6. Patriots- Fred Taylor
7. Eagles- Stacy Andrews
8. Texans- Dan Orvlosky
9. Jets- Lito Sheppard
10. Cowboys- Kieth Brooking

Harsh times over at Denver

This past weekend before the deal between the Chiefs and the Patriots fell through, Denver had attempted to get Matt Cassel. There have been reports that the Broncos were discussing a trade with the Buccaneers and the Patriots, sending Cassel to the Broncos and Cutler to Tampa and New England in return getting draft pick(s) (I believe, not certain). Another scenario involved the Lions, Broncos, and Patriots, where the Lions would get Cutler and the Broncos get Cassel.

Wow! Imagine if that fell through. That would’ve been a big trade and would’ve shaken up the landscape a whole lot more than the Chiefs and Patriots trade. Well, guess what, it didn’t happen and now Broncos QB Jay Cutler isn’t very happy. “I'm upset. I mean, I'm really shocked at this point,” Cutler told The Post. “I could see why they want Cassel. I don't know if they think I can't run the system or I don't have the skills for it. Or if they don't think they can sign me with my next contract. I just don't know what it is. I've heard I'm still on the trading block.” I really feel bad for Cutler even though I’m not a big fan of the guy and his cockiness (thinks his arm is stronger than Elway). Pretty much what the Broncos organization is doing is spitting at Cutler’s face and his ability to be the Broncos QB. Even though they said that they never wanted to trade him, it was a slap to his face. They still thought about the possibility of trading him.

Head Coach Josh McDaniels said that the team got inquires for a number of players. “He's not the only person in the last few days we've received calls on,” new Broncos coach Josh McDaniels told the Denver Post. “We've received trade calls on a number of players, which is not uncommon this time of the year. I also think the sensitivity of the other trade that was occurring, with my relationship with New England and the whole Cassel thing, I think that stirred the pot even more.” That’s pretty much saying, we tried to get Matt Cassel, but that didn’t work out. O well, we have Jay here and he’ll do fine even though we tried to trade him. We can work with him and let’s move on. To me that seems like a bad apology even though it’s not an real apology. Jay Cutler was Mike Shanahan’s experiment which at times has worked out and at other time hasn’t. Cutler is still a work in progress and last year he had one hell of a season and his best numbers (25 TD’s, 18 INT, and 4526 yds).

As a whole, the Broncos are pretty much saying that they are not confident in Cutler to lead the team to a playoff game and potentially a Superbowl appearance. I would be lying if Cutler didn’t think that’s what the organization thinks of him right now. Also we can’t blame head coach McDaniels totally either. He tried to get Mat Cassel because he was familiar with his style of play and had a great relationship with him at New England. I can’t blame him for that. Both sides need to reconcile before the season starts. If you’re a Denver fan, you were on a big high with the recent signings going on. When this took place, that high has gone done because if the QB and head coach can’t look each other eye to eye, there will be some problems in the upcoming season. For the fan’s sake, I hope they can settle this issue out in time for next season and not create a rift between them, but it will make for good TV.

Also, can someone babysit Brandon Marshall? Really dude? The guy was arrested in Atlanta, for fighting. The guy needs to be careful. I don’t want to say the guy is becoming like Pac Man, but he’s getting close. He needs to understand that he’s employed in the NFL and many people are depending on him like his teammates and the people who sign his checks. He needs to watch his actions. Be a role model in Denver and everywhere else bro, kids do look up to you. The guy is in trouble every year. This is not good for the team in general. That Denver high must be wearing down now with the debacle between Cutler and McDaniels and the Marshall run with the law.

Isaac Bruce and Kurt Warner to reconnect for a Second Time?

Sources are saying that QB Kurt Warner is meeting with the 49ers early in the upcoming week. The Cardinals couldn’t sign the QB, where they offered him a new contract between the $10-$12 million dollars for about two years and a third year option. Warner has said that he would retire if the Cards couldn’t sign him to a new deal.

If Warner does sign with the 49ers, it will help them out a lot. Warner is a vet who can still play, but with good offensive weapons which the 49ers don’t have aside from Vernon Davis, who is still kind of growing/developing as a player and Frank Gore. The 49ers have Arnaz Battle and Isaac Bruce at the wide receiver position, but they’re not considered to be elite receivers (Bruce still has some left in the tank). Last year Battle had 24 receptions for 318 yards and no touchdowns. Nothing against Bruce, he was a great player with the Rams, but he can’t have the entire load on him. The 49ers need to get another WR to help him out. Last season, Bruce caught 61 passes for 835 yards and 7 touchdowns. The guy can still play and I think he could lure in his old teammate from the Rams days to throw him a few more touchdowns passes next season.

Also if the 49ers sign Warner, they will have a QB who can help develop the fallen star in San Francisco known as Alex Smith. Many believe that Alex Smith is a busted draft pick, but I think if Warner comes in, he can help the kid a lot. Warner is a great leader and Warner will be the role model Smith needs to help him get back on track. I wouldn’t give up on Smith now, you drafted him # 1, develop the kid. Try to salvage what you can.

What are the Cards doing? Do they really want to go to Matt Leinart next season? If it wasn’t for Warner, the Cards wouldn’t have made it to the Superbowl. They should do everything in their power to keep the guy. If they don’t, it will be another 60 years or so until they reach the Superbowl. I’ll tell you this, if Warner is gone, Fitz will be extremely mad and Boldin will be gone for sure.