Author: Tyler

Chicago Bears Hire Matt Nagy

According to Adam Schefter, the Chicago Bears have hired former Kansas City Chiefs’ OC Matt Nagy. The terms of the deal have not been released.

The Bears have struggled offensively for years under John Fox, so it’s no surprise that theyย  went with a more offensive minded coach. Nagy had been with the Chiefs since 2013 where he was their Quarterbacks coach until 2015 when he was promoted to Offensive Coordinator.

This past year, the Chiefs had the league’s 5th best offense averaging 375.4 yards and 25.9 points per game. On the other end of the spectrum, the Bears were the 30th ranked offense averaging 287.4 yards and 16.5 points per game.

With Nagy now on board, let’s hope he can elevate second year QB Mitchell Trubisky the same way Sean McVay did for Jared Goff this past year.

 

Raiders Hire Their Next Head Coach

The Oakland Raiders have hired Jon Gruden as their next coach. According to Adam Schefter, the team will make it official on Tuesday when they hold an introductory press conference.

The move doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. This “news” was basically made official weeks ago but it was nice to finally get the conformation that both sides have agreed on a contract and we can put these rumors to bed.

Gruden, who coached Oakland from 1998 to 2001, is returning to the Raiders to replace Jack Del Rio, who was fired after the regular-season finale on Sunday.

At the end of the day this signing wont really make much of an impact. It’ll be funny and entertaining, but it wont really make that much of a difference. The biggest impact will be for the fans who watch Monday Night Football and the fans who love Hooters and Coronas. We don’t like change.

 

EDITOR’S NOTE –ย  Just broke that this is for 10 years, $100 million. What a joke to pay a football coach that much. The Raiders better hope it’s worth it because it’s probably not.

Ref Gives UNC Player the Cold Shoulder

Funniest moment from last nights’ college basketball slate of games had to be when referee Ted Valentine turned his back on North Carolina’s Joel Berry II when he tried to discuss a non-call.

It was clear that Joel was held by the FSU defender as he was running down the court, which led to the UNC turnover. At the time of this play, it was only a 3 point game and might have been the difference maker considering FSU won by 1 point.

You always hear of referees complaining about how players treat them on the court. It was refreshing to see a referee shut down a player for once. Besides missing an obvious call, I loved what Ted Valentine did last night.

Isaiah Thomas Returns to the Court and to Boston

How IT played

In his first game back, Isaiah Thomas looked pretty good. IT had some rust, but he shot 6 of 12 from the fieldย  and 3-8 from three. He finished the night with 17 points and 3 assists. For the most part he looked like the old IT – he had a drive where he beat his defender, created contact, and finished off the play for an and one. Although he hit his shots, they appeared to be wide open and not heavily contested. It will be interesting to see how he looks when he goes up against defenders like Patrick Beverly and Avery Bradley. Only then will we know if Isaiah is truly back. Coming off the bench, the Cavs have a plan to only play Isaiah 12-20 minutes and going forward he will not play back-to-back nights.

Celtics Fans’ Reaction

IT should and better get a standing ovation from the Boston crowd. Besides Brad and Danny, IT is the most important part of the Celtics turnaround from being a lottery team to reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. When IT was traded to the Celtics, they had a losing record and were expected to be a lottery team for the second year in a row. He elevated his game and took that team all the way to the playoffs. He was an embodiment of what Boston loves in their athletes — someone who is tough as nails, always plays with a chip on his shoulder and is willing to leave it all out there on the court.

Since the trade, IT has said that he wishes he didn’t play through his hip injury in last years playoffs because it cost him a large chunk of his 2017-2018 season. These are not the comments that a Boston fan wants to hear but what Isaiah maybe doesn’t realize just yet is that 15-20 years from now Boston fans wont forget what he did playing through his hip injury and the death of his sister.

Just like Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, when IT comes back Wednesday night he will be doused with love and cheers. He will hear thank you, IT chants/signs and possibly an MVP chant to top it off just so he knows how much this city cared for him.

Isaiah has asked that the Celtics not play a tribute video in his first trip back. In a response on Twitter, Thomas explains why he declined the tribute video “I would like to actually PLAY & have my family in the arena to appreciate the love the city/organization will show US? It ain’t about me its about my family.” The Celtics agreed to not play a video this time but they plan to do so in the future.

With all this love going to IT, does Jae expect to receive a standing ovation or a tribute video? I would expect him to get a video, but I’m not so sure he gets cheered. He was critical of the Boston fans cheering opposing player Gordon Hayward and basically called the fans racist and the fact that he gave Gordon a little bump in the air which led to his gruesome injury.

Why play IT against Portland instead of Boston?

Holding IT out on Wednesday is the smartest thing the Cavs could do for many reasons.

  1. It removes the threat of Isaiah pushing too hard to get his “revenge” on the Celtics front office.
  2. It takes the spotlight off of him and allows him to ease back into playing under the radar.
  3. The story shifts from Isaiah vs. Celtics to Lebron vs. Irving/ Celtics vs Cavs.

It stinks for the fans not to get to see IT play, but this is the smart move for him and the team moving forward.

Who Won the Trade?

Months after the trade went down, we still can’t determine who won this trade. The Celtics look fantastic with Kyrie and are playing tremendous basketball, but the Cavs get IT back and he could very well be the difference maker this year. The Brooklyn pick doesn’t look as valuable as it has the past few years. The Nets are currently 14-23 which puts them 10th from the bottom and gives them a 4.0% chance to land a top 3 pick and 1.1% to get the first overall pick. The idea was to either trade the lottery pick for an all star at the deadline or keep the pick to help with a potential rebuild if LeBron leaves. At this point with the pick being so low, the Cavs won’t be able to get that difference maker at the deadline and is probably best to keep it.

The biggest chip in the trade was Kyrie Irving who is playing like on an MVP level this year. There were questions as to whether he would work in Brad’s offense and would he put in the effort to play the defense. The answer to both questions are yes. Kyrie is playing the best defense of his career, just watching him play, he’s going all out and rarely taking a play off. Defensively he is averaging 3.1 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 0.3 blocks a game. Offensively he is averaging 24.8 points and 4.9 assists per game. He’s becoming more of a passer and has excepted the role of playing off the ball at times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0COfbjPqHto

Jae Crowder, who the media was gushing over immediately following the trade is back to being the average role player he always was. It wasn’t fair to Jae that the media put expectations on him that he wouldn’t be able to reach. He’s a good 3 and D role player coming off the bench.ย He averages 8.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and is shooting 40% from three while playing 26 minutes a game.

Ante Zizic was a draft and stash by the Celtics a few years ago and received high praises from scouts in Europe. In his first year in the NBA he is bouncing back and forth between the NBA and the G-League. When he does get into games they are blowouts, he’s averaging 1.2 points and 1.2 rebounds.

Additional thoughts on the Irving and Isaiah

Kryie is a player that other young superstars would love to play with. The most notable superstar that has been on the Celtics radar for years has been Anthony Davis. The Pelicans have said multiple times that they have no interest in trading Davis. However if things get ugly in New Orleans, I could see a scenario where Davis forces his way out and asks to be traded to a team like Boston that already has a superstar in Irving and has a ton of young talent.

As much as we love Isaiah, he was a player that needed to touch the ball on every possession. He earned the nickname King of the Fourth because of the way he would take over the 4th quarter. With that being said, I wonder if Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum would have been able to develop the way they have if IT was here and healthy. Tatum in the 4th quarter this year is shooting 70% 17 for 24 from the field and has made 3 of 4 three pointers 75%. On the season he is averaging 14.1 points, 1.4 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game.

Jaylen Brown has also taken a big step from year 1 to year 2 and I’m not sure if he would have taken this big of a step if Isaiah was here. He is averaging 14.4 points, 1.2 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game.

As much as we love IT, Danny made the right move in trading him. It’s too early to declare a winner, but as of right now the Celtics have zero regrets about making this move and the fans agree.

 

Twins Star 3B Miguel Sano Accused of Sexually Assaulting Photographer

Earlier today, Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano has been accused of sexual assault by a female photographer. The photographer, Betsy Bissen, worked at Minnesota Twins events for the past few years. Betsy claims that this assault happened back in 2015.

https://twitter.com/BitzyBetsy/status/946407707606740992

Betsy, followed up her original tweet by saying she “wants nothing but to feel free of this burden I’ve carried with me since 2015. I have NOTHING to gain from this”.

Sano issued a statement today denying the allegations.

“I unequivocally deny the allegation made against me today — it never happened,” Sano said in the statement. “I have the utmost respect for women, especially those working in professional sports, and I deeply sympathize with anyone who has experienced sexual harassment. There is no place for it in our society.”

Rob Plummer, Sano’s former agent, confirmed that he was at the mall for the signing, but was not in position to see the alleged incident.

“I was outside next to the car waiting for him to come out on the other side of the loading bay dock, so I don’t know what happened inside,” Plummer told ESPN. “I didn’t see or hear anything. I wasn’t anywhere near Miguel.”

Since her original post, Bissen has claimed that the Twins new nothing about what transpired that day.

The Twins issued a statement that they have been made aware of these allegations.

“Today the Minnesota Twins were made aware of allegations involving Miguel Sano at an offsite appearance during the 2015 season,” the statement said. “The Twins, along with Major League Baseball, take these allegations very seriously. Until more information is gathered, the Twins will have no further comments.”

It will be interesting to see how major league baseball will punish Miguel if these allegations against him are proven true. If they are true, they must come down on him hard and show the public that they take these types of situations very seriously.

ESPN’s newest 30 for 30 ‘The Two Bills’

Get your popcorn ready Patriot and NFL fans, ESPN has announced that they will be releasing a new 30 for 30 titled “The Two Bills” February 1st.

The documentary features Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells. The joint interview will discuss their relationship and careers together.

“Bill and I, weโ€™ve spent plenty of time together, but that was on camera,”ย Belichickย said on Dale & Holley with Rich Keefe last month. “It was down at Giants Stadium in their locker room. We covered a lot of ground. A couple of hours โ€” two or three hours. I canโ€™t remember, exactly. It is always good to be with Bill and reminisce. We won a lot of games together. We had a lot of great times together and I think the NFL Films crew probably, hopefully captured it as good as anybody, probably better than anybody does. Certainly better than anybody else in football, but just overall and bringing things together, they do a great job. I always loveย to watch their productions, especially the ones that donโ€™t involve me. They seem a lot less interesting.โ€

 

This will be an electric documentary. You rarely get any type of real personality out of Bill Belichick so this will give us a chance to dive into what Bill is really like.

James Harrison Officially a Patriot

It didn’t take long for the rumors to turn into reality. James Harrison posted on Instagram announcing he will be signing with the Patriots for the remainder of the season. The terms of the agreement haven’t been released but the move will most likely be for 1 year and then a retirement announcement from Harrison.

The Patriots aren’t asking much from him but lets hope he has 4 games left in him.

James Harrison to the Patriots?

It has been confirmed that Ex-Steeler James Harrison has been spotted at Logan International Airport and visited Gillette Stadium today. The 39 year-old was put on waivers by the Steelers and as of yesterday he was unclaimed and became a free-agent.

The Patriots front 7 are coming off their best performance of the year where they sacked Tyrod Taylor 6 times, but overall have been pretty inconsistent. It would be interesting to see if Harrison could add any type of spark to the Pats’ D-line. If the Patriots did sign Harrison, he would strictly be a 3rd down pass rusher, much like what the Falcons did with Dwight Freeney last year.

On the year, Harrison has only played in 5 games and recorded only 3 tackles and 1 sack. The main reason for James’s reduction in playing time is due to the Steelers drafting T.J Watt in last years first round.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Harrison didn’t sign with the Patriots and ended up back in Pittsburgh if there was an injury to their D-Line.

Overall, I would approve of this signing. I believe he could bring some toughness to the defense and if he has nothing left, they cut him and move on.

Yu Darvish Dismisses #Fakenews Signing

One of the big stories from Thursday was the false reporting of Yu Darvish agreeing to a deal with the Chicago Cubs.

The person who reported the signing was Barstool Carl for Barstool Sports. Whats surprising is that Carl is normally pretty accurate. We all make mistakes, but its comical that it sent baseball fans and Twitter into a frenzy.

When Darvish officially signs with a team, we will accurately report it #nomorefakenews

Announcer Dick Enberg Passes at the age of 82

Legendary sports announcer Dick Enberg passed away unexpectedly in his home yesterday.ย  He announced all types of sports from his play-by-play for college basketball, college and professional football and Major League Baseball. He also called other sporting events such as boxing, tennis, golf, horse racing and the Olympics.

San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Bryce Miller broke the sad news on Twitter. He also stated that Dick’s wife believes her husband died of a heart attack.

 

 

Dick who last worked for the San Diego Padres had just retired from broadcasting in 2016. Don Orsillo, the former Red Sox announced had taken over for Dick and shared his thoughts on his passing.