San Diego Chargers

All told, this is no way to treat a franchise quarterback.

No Comments

Authentic Womens Sammy Watkins Jersey
Nelson Agholor Jersey Believe this: The Packers aren’t screwing around with Aaron Rodgers’ health, nor the Steelers with Ben Roethlisberger, and so on, right up to the ultimate franchise centerpiece himself up in Foxborough. Those teams are not going wire-to-wire with those quarterbacks in December games that are barely important, if at all.

For that matter, they probably are not flexing on those quarterbacks about petty team dress codes, either, which may or may not be another story entirely.

Newton is the centerpiece of the Carolina franchise. Seven years in, isn’t it time for the Panthers to start acting like it?

Rose and gambling are synonymous, of course. Baseball’s all-time hit king — he had 4,256 of them in his 24-year career — has been banned from working in the sport since 1989 when then-commissioner Bart Giamatti concluded, based on the Dowd Report, that Rose bet on baseball while manager of the Cincinnati Reds. The ban, as you know, makes him ineligible for the Hall of Fame, too. Rose has appealed the lifetime ban multiple times, and each time he has been denied.

But now that Manfred and baseball’s owners are taking a fresh look at their relationship with gambling, the obvious next step is to finally welcome Rose back into the sport, right?

These are two completely different discussions. Don’t get confused. This has NOTHING to do with Rose. With this news Wednesday, Manfred is addressing a fan issue that, quite honestly, should have been addressed years ago. Better late than never.

Continue Reading

San Diego Chargers

Padres’ pitching is weak, but they’re trying to compensate

No Comments

Jodie Meeks Kids Jersey
In case you missed it, the Padres have basically admitted their rotation isn’t very strong.

San Diego has upwards of 10 candidates for five spots as it begins exhibition play Saturday, but none of them was overly effective last season (see the list below). Manager Andy Green, therefore, is flirting with the idea of limiting starters’ innings during the season and piggybacking a starter and a reliever who might split the first two to three trips through the batting order. Pitchers could also shift between starting and relieving.

Green is trying to sell the notion that the Padres are being forward-thinking, that they want to take advantage of their depth and create better matchups. It sounds more like a way to mask their lack of frontline starters.

As of this writing, the Padres’ main rotation candidates (as listed on MLB.com’s depth chart) are Clayton Richard, Jered Weaver, Jhoulys Chacin, Luis Perdomo, Christian Friedrich, Trevor Cahill, Jarred Cosart and Paul Clemens. Tyrell Jenkins and Erik Johnson also are in the mix. The group’s 2016 stats show how underwhelming these guys are:
Game Mens Ryan Shazier Jersey
On the mound, San Diego’s 4.43 team ERA ranked in the bottom half of the league, and Padres pitchers allowed the fourth-most home runs.

On offense, the bright spot was Wil Myers, who led the team with 28 homers, 94 RBIs and 3.2 wins above replacement (WAR). Among pitchers, Drew Pomeranz was the lone starter with a winning record, 8-7, though he posted a strong 2.47 ERA.

Apart from that? Well …

It was yet another forgettable season in a string of forgettable seasons. It’s what San Diego has come to expect from its baseball team.

Continue Reading

San Diego Chargers

Cleveland radio host fired after saying Jabrill Peppers is ‘high all the time’

No Comments

The Browns selected Jabrill Peppers in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft, even after the former Michigan safety tested positive for a dilute sample at the NFL Combine in March.

Now former ESPN Radio Cleveland host Sabrina Parr thinks it was a mistake by the Browns and explained why Wednesday morning.

While comparing Peppers to troubled Browns receiver Josh Gordon, who has a long history of substance abuse, Parr believes Peppers also abuses drugs.

While he’s still technically a member of the Browns, he has no future with the team. He’s on the roster only because it doesn’t hurt Cleveland to own his rights. With his suspension, they don’t have to pay him, and they could hang on to him as a potential bargaining chip in a trade.

“What’s best for our football team is that we move forward and move on,” Hue Jackson said last September of Gordon. “He’s not going to be with us and we wish him well, but we’re moving forward. We’re going to move on.”

When Gordon applied for reinstatement in March, his business manager Michael Johnson released a statement claiming his client was doing well.

This will be a special year for Josh and we are all very proud of the way he has taken the necessary steps to turn his life around.”
Gordon hasn’t been on the field in the regular season since 2014, when he started five games for Cleveland. With the Browns moving on from him and his inability to get reinstated, other teams may not feel like he’s worth the effort. At 26, the receiver is still young and looked talented in last year’s preseason, but the suspensions will scare away at least a few teams.
nike_chargers_243

Continue Reading

San Diego Chargers

Vladimir Guerrero, Roy Halladay inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame … in Canada

No Comments

Elite Womens Martin Brodeur Jersey
St. Mary’s, Ontario isn’t Cooperstown, but it’ll have to do for Vladimir Guerrero in 2017.

Two weeks after missing out on induction into the official Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, Guerrero, the former All-Star outfielder for the Montreal Expos, earned a spot in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. He’ll be shrined along with former Cy Young winner Roy Halladay, Baseball Canada president Ray Carter, the late umpire Doug Hudlin and the entire 2015 Pan-Am games gold medal-winning team.

Murphy accounts for his anti-Mets accomplishments by saying he’s motivated when facing division rivals and that he’s comfortable playing at Citi Field. His Nats teammates and manager Dusty Baker aren’t buying it.

You’re always motivated against a division rival. You’re going to play these guys 19 times, Murphy said. When you play a division team, one team goes in one direction and one goes in the other one. So the games are of the utmost importance.

He added of the Queens ballpark, Come here and things are familiar. I don’t know if that [wanting to beat the Mets] has anything to do with it, Murphy said.
Scott Crichton Authentic Jersey
Baker countered, It definitely matters. Guys say it doesn’t matter, but it matters. It mattered for me when I faced the Braves when I got traded from the Braves.

Added Scherzer, Sunday night’s winning pitcher, He won’t say anything, and he won’t say anything to us. It’s not like he’s in here boasting that he wants to beat the Mets, but he wants to beat them apart.

It won’t take long to put Baker and Scherzer’s theory to another test – the Nats (13-5) host the Mets (8-11) for another three-game weekend series beginning Friday.

Continue Reading

San Diego Chargers

MLB highlights: Aaron Judge unloads monster home run into Yankee Stadium bleachers

No Comments

The biggest of the Baby Bombers hit one of the biggest home runs of the young major league season Wednesday night.
Limited Cameron Fleming Jersey
Limited David DeCastro Jersey Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, who’s listed at 6-7, 282, destroyed a hanging breaking ball by the White Sox’s Dylan Covey. The official distance into the left field bleachers was 448 feet. That seems a little . . . light. It sure looked as though the ball would have gone out in the old, old Yankee Stadium, back when Death Valley basically extended to Yonkers.

To capture baseball’s human side, especially in a four-hour program, meant looking for interesting people and stories away from the field, showing a baseball season from different perspectives.

What does the traveling secretary do? What’s it like to be a clubhouse attendant? What keeps a trainer occupied? What’s a game like for umpires?

These people are key figures in baseball’s routines, so their stories fit right in.

It was all the different aspects of getting through a baseball season: who you deal with, how you deal with, who are the important people and how you navigate through that, Diamond said.

Navigating through the 1982 season sometimes meant navigating through unpleasant or awkward situations, such as when Turner called all-hands meetings at his office to demand answers when the team struggled.

Continue Reading

San Diego Chargers

Pace and the Bears cleaned house at quarterback after the end of last season

No Comments

If you thought the quarterback position was expensive in, say, Indianapolis or Carolina or Washington, get a load of the price tag in Chicago.

Then ask yourself how Bears general manager Ryan Pace reached the point where he felt all of that was worth it.

Pace and the Bears cleaned house at quarterback after the end of last season, ditching Jay Cutler after eight years, and were ready to start over. They went out and paid heavily for Glennon, who has played for a bunch of coaches and backed up plenty of starters in his four years at Tampa Bay.

Limited Womens Davonte Lambert Jersey The Bears sold that hard throughout free agency, and kept selling it throughout the draft process, as Trubisky’s star rose above that of at least one far more experienced and accomplished quarterback, Deshaun Watson. It rose even as far as first overall to the Browns as the draft approached — presuming that wasn’t just a lure for a trade.

So, barring injury, the Bortles-Jaguars marriage will go in one of two directions this year: He plays well enough to earn a long-term contract extension in Jacksonville, or the Jaguars enter the 2018 NFL Draft (or free agency) with a new franchise quarterback in mind.
Limited Womens Geno Atkins Jersey
If the latter becomes the case, Bortles likely will have run out of excuses. The Jaguars’ 2017 draft class earned a solid grade from SN’s Vinnie Iyer in large part thanks to their obvious effort to support Bortles.

Continue Reading

Detroit Lions

Colin Kaepernick gives away custom suits outside parole office

No Comments

Matt Stafford has never enjoyed the luxury of playing with an elite-level running back during his eight seasons as Lions quarterback. The drought continues after general manager Bob Quinn eschewed the position with all nine of Detroit’s picks. This is great news for Abdullah, who will be leading the committee approach along with Theo Riddick and Zach Zenner in 2017.

Like the Eli Manning-led New York Giants did with Cal’s Davis Webb in Round 3, the Chargers could have targeted an heir apparent for Rivers. By not drafting a quarterback, the 35-year-old Rivers won’t have to look over his shoulder knowing the clock is ticking on his time with the Chargers for at least another season.

Colin Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job in the NFL, so he’s helping others find employment.

The former 49ers quarterback was seen Monday giving away free suits outside a parole office in New York.

In cooperation with 100 Suits, an organization that works to reduce recidivism rates by helping “formerly incarcerated individuals, homeless individuals, gang members and survivors of domestic violence,” Kaepernick dropped off two large boxes of custom-made suits at a parole office in Queens.

Kaepernick, who was named last month in Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2017, has vowed to stand during the national anthem this season after drawing criticism for kneeling last year. Still, numerous reports have indicated NFL front offices have blackballed Kaepernick so as to avoid a perceived distraction.
cubs_960

Continue Reading

San Diego Chargers

There’s a fresh drawing for each of the three picks

No Comments

It wasn’t just the biggest jump this year, though. It was the biggest jump all-time in the NHL Draft Lottery, dating back to the first drawing in 1995.

That’s partially due to the rules. From 1995 to 2012, the lottery allowed any team to move up as many, but no more than, four spots. Beginning in 2015, the NHL allowed any team in the lottery to win the first overall pick, and starting in 2016 — in part to avoid the tanking that many teams blatantly performed during the Connor McDavid sweepstakes the year prior — the lottery was expanded to include the top three picks.
JC Tretter Kids Jersey
There’s a fresh drawing for each of the three picks, with the odds changing based on each. The Flyers had a 2.4 percent chance in the second-place drawing that they won, while they had a 2.2 percent chance in the first-place drawing and a 2.7 percent chance at third. More drawings means a more of a chance for a big jump like we saw from the Philadelphia-assigned ping pong balls this year.

Fozzy Whittaker Kids Jersey AND THEN. HOLY SHIT. Connor The Young Mother Fucking PopeMcDavid blessed us all with a goal right out of NHL 17, when he turned on a dimebag and made Sami Vatanen look like Mr or Mrs Russell – whichever one taught Kris how to control a gap – before promptly wiring one top corner. Wow. Holy moly everyone. That was about as special as K. And we all know how competitive the grown-up cereal game is.

Unfortunately, Talbot was still playing like a man possessed by a bad goaltender, and was directly responsible for a weak go-ahead goal near the end of the second frame. I don’t care who scored it and neither do that guy’s parents, he was an accident after all.

That effectively killed the game, and our spirits, as the Oilers were never able to will another goal over the line, while the dirty fucking Ducks managed to squeak home another couple.

Oh well. Given how the Oilers GTA-bank-heisted game two in Anaheim, this is completely no harm, no foul for me.

Continue Reading

San Diego Chargers

NBA playoff schedule 2017: Russell Westbrook and James Harden’s MVP duel resumes in Game 3

No Comments

Elite Rafael Bush Jersey The NBA couldn’t have predicted these three series they shuffled over onto Friday night would have been the best three, but they might have had an idea. The night starts with Bulls-Celtics, moves onto Thunder-Rockets, and closes with Jazz-Clippers.

After skating to a scoreless first period, the Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 lead with two goals in the first one minute and four seconds of the second period. The Capitals eventually tied the game in the third period, but Pittsburgh quickly took the lead back. The Penguins held on for the win despite being outshot 16-6 in the third period and 35-21 in the game.

The Penguins are 20-8 over their last 28 postseason games, including a 5-2 record against the Capitals per the OddsShark NHL Database. Pittsburgh went 7-4 on the road en route to its Stanley Cup championship last season.

With the loss in Game 1 on Thursday night, the Capitals fell to 3-9 in their last 12 postseason games against the Penguins. Nine of those 12 games were decided by one goal, and six of them were decided in overtime. The games have been close, but the Penguins have had the Capitals’ number. Since 2013, Washington is 6-8 in 14 home games against Pittsburgh.
Elite Michael Johnson Jersey
Saturday night’s total is set at 5.5 goals. The OVER is 7-3-3 in the last 13 games between these two division rivals.

Washington and Pittsburgh have been the top two teams in the East in points for each of the last two years, and once again these two rivals clash in the second round. The winner of this series will emerge as the favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

This figures to be a long series regardless of what happens on Saturday, but the Capitals will desperately fight to avoid heading back to Pittsburgh down 0-2 with a win in this one.

Continue Reading

San Diego Chargers

Takkarist McKinley won’t be fined by NFL, later or otherwise

No Comments

Melvin Ingram Game Jersey Right after Takkarist McKinley was drafted 26th overall by the Atlanta Falcons, he dropped an f-bomb on television during an emotional speech about his grandmother. McKinley wrapped up his speech by saying the NFL could fine me later, but the league will not fine McKinley for his language.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport seems to support the decision to not fine McKinley based on his emoji usage.

Connor Barwin Game Jersey McKinley was raised by his grandmother, Myrtle Collins, who saved him from homelessness and hopelessness. To honor her memory and the role she played in his life, McKinley carried a large framed picture of her on stage with him at the draft.

Being selected in the first round of the NFL draft was the fulfillment of a promise McKinley made to his grandmother on her deathbed, so it’s understandable that he was emotional in that moment.

I told her before she passed away I was going to live my dream, I was going to go D-1, I was going to get out of Richmond, I was going to get out of Oakland, McKinley said to NFL Network’s Deion Sanders. I was going to go to the NFL. I made that promise to her, man. Thirty seconds later she passed away. And this is who I do it for.

McKinley was drafted late enough in the first round that it was past 10 p.m. ET, which is considered the safe harbor time by the FCC. The FCC does not fine networks for profanity during that time frame.

The NFL has a lot of latitude to fine players under the CBA’s personal conduct policy, and in this case, letting McKinley off the hook is the right call.

Continue Reading