Apparently, These Aren't Going To Be Your Same Auld Jets


bring it on...

“I don’t know if this division has ever seen a violent defense,” Scott said of the American Football Conference East. “It’s one thing to be physical and make a tackle. It’s another thing to be violent. To tell you the truth, you have to shut me up. That’s why I never called the plays out there. I was too busy fighting.”

Sacking Eric Mangini, hiring Rex Ryan and now signing linebacker Bart Scott has changed the face of the New York Jets. This will all have an infinitely higher impact than even the signing of Brett Favre.

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Looks like the local wank this week is about Team USA being ready "this time".

They've got alot of really good, even some great players but whilst they can talk all they want about talent they may not have the same desire as the guys they're playing and they may not have had as much preparation as some of the other teams who have been focused on this for months. Not that one can blame Team USA but if they go down in humiliating style again this year, there will be major reforms, one suspects.

On the other hand, Davey Johnson is managing Team USA this time around and that makes a huge difference right there. There won't be a better manager out there.

So if they don't win it all this season, what's the excuse? I mean, Team USA isn't the only team with stars adhering to MLB's schedule and joining their team late without alot of time to mix chemically with their team mates. So, I don't think that argument holds water.

I don't think it matters that they're veteran players either. Maybe some collegiate All-Star team practising all winter might be more similar to some of these favourites like Cuba or defending champion Japan in preparation but that's rubbish - stick the best professional players out there, that's what this is all about.

I mean if you look at the World Cup, which is like the WBC on steroids, teams don't stick their youth players out there in lieu of their established, professional stars.

A team like Brazil, for example, probably the footy equivilent to Team USA, is expected to be the best team in the World Cup every time around. And believe me, the pressure on the players for Brazil in the World Cup dwarf any expectation Americans have of Team USA. And most Cups, they either win, are in the finals or come really bloody close.

Will Team USA do that this time around? I suspect they won't be caught as off-guard this time as they were strutting in the 2006 WBC. I suspect they'll view this tournament with the gravitas that it merits and the results will be somewhat different. They may not win, but they're going to be one of the best teams there.

Even if they aren't perhaps on par, fervor-wise with Japan's team:

Preparation for defense of the title began when Hara gathered 33 players at the team's mini-camp in the city of Miyazaki, in southern Japan, early in February. After working out the kinks, the Samurai played exhibition games against the Yomiuri Giants before capacity crowds at the 30,000-seat Sun Marine Stadium in Miyazaki on Feb. 21 and 22, the latter game played in a steady, cold rain.

Granted, there was no admission fee, but fans had to line up for tickets, and several thousand camped out all night to make sure they could get in. It was still dark outside when the last of the freebies were handed out at about 6 a.m. local time both days for the 1 p.m. games.

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One of the more interesting stories of the week which wasn't an overblown media event was about sorta stalking Shaq via Twitter which details an incident involving regular Joe twitterers and Shaq at the 5 and Diner. It's a warm story, one which could easily be hyperblown into a movie, I can just see it now, Super Hero Shaq and the Invisible Twitterers wherein Shaq enlists the help of two otherwise anonymous twitterers to simultaneously win the Vegas League championship and thwart a terrorist attack on the Bellagio...

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Open Letter to Jay Cutler From Minnesota Vikings fans says it all...

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Lastly, for those who have forgotten, the guy who was once traded for 10 maple bats, is gone forever.

People are like, 'I'd kill myself' and stuff," Odom said at the time, dismissing any such notion.

Three weeks after the trade, he abruptly left the team.

Six months after the trade, he was dead.

The medical examiner said Odom's death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol."