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| Results for matches played in Miami from (2006-01-01) |
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| MIAMI (Reuters) - The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) has elected Antiguan Gordon Derrick, an official reprimanded in a FIFA ethics probe, as their new president a year after Jack Warner relinquished the post amid corruption allegations. Derrick replaces Haitian acting president Yves Jean-Bart, who assumed the role following Warner's suspension by FIFA last year for an alleged role in the 'cash for votes' case involving former Asian soccer chief Mohamed Bin Hammam. ... | |
The President made sure to give Galaxy star midfielder a hard time, while also calling the team the Miami Heat of Major League Soccer.
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Houston Texans defensive end/outside linebacker Mario Williams is the rock star of this year's defensive free agent class, but that doesn't mean that there aren't many other intriguing options at all positions for teams feeling the need to improve their defenses beyond the draft. Here's our offensive free agency primer ; we now turn our attention to those players charged with the task of keeping the scores down
Defensive Ends
Williams will likely demand and receive a contract in line with what Julius Peppers got from the Chicago Bears in 2010: Six years and $84 million, with half of that figure guaranteed. He's the sure quarterback demolition machine in any 4-3 defense, and the fact that he was coming around at pass-rushing outside linebacker in Wade Phillips' 5-2 scheme before a season-ending injury in 2011 puts his value even higher.
One of the most interesting players in this FA class is end Red Bryant of the Seattle Seahawks. Originally drafted as a tackle. Bryant became a real game-changer when Pete Carroll moved him to five-tech end and let him blow up everyone else's running game. 3-4 teams looking for more run defense out of their ends, like the Packers and Steelers, will surely give Bryant a look.
Beyond that, look for John Abraham to get a lot of play as a rotational end in a 4-3, and Kendall Langford perhaps shopping his skills to teams missing out on Bryant but still in need of a hybrid player, Jaguars DE Jeremy Mincey is one of the most underrated players in this FA class; look for the smarter teams around the league to check him out. Add Chicago's Israel Idonije, Peppers' longtime bookend, to the underrated list. Mike Anderson proved that he could play in multiple fronts with the Pats in 2011, as did Andre Carter.
Defensive Tackles
A very interesting group here. With Sione Pouha's re-signing with the Jets, Miami's Paul Soliai is the best pure 3-4 nose tackle on the open market. At 6-fot-4 and 355 pounds, he can play in different spots inside, but Soliai's primary value is in soaking up blockers so that others can make plays. The Dolphins thought enough of Soliai to franchise him last year -- with their move to a predominant four-man front, some other team will benefit greatly from his abilities, even and especially when that team switches to nickel defenses and required their nose tackle to move around.
Brodrick Bunkley was a hidden factor on Denver's defense in 2011, but the few people who looked past Tim Tebow on the Denver roster knew his value. Bunkley can play a role as a light tackle in a 3-4, but his best role is as a space-eater in a 40 front. At 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds, Tennessee's Jason Jones could get looks at many positions -- straight end, straight tackle, or as a hybrid player capable of creating havoc all over the line. He's best-suited to a creative defensive coordinator with multiple fronts in his playbook.
Those looking for more defensive tackles might be interested in the possibility of three former Saints -- according to some reports, Shaun Rogers, Aubrayo Franklin, and Sedrick Ellis could all be up for grabs.
Linebackers
Stephen Tulloch is probably the most versatile and effective linebacker in this class, but Seattle's David Hawthorne should be an attractive option -- he's played very well at middle and strong-side linebacker, and as it's become on the defensive line, versatility is important at the linebacker position as well. Hawthorne is not a pass-rusher, per se -- more a savvy run-stopper who can spy gaps in certain packages.
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| Despite reports that the Denver Broncos were heavy favorites to lock up the services of Peyton Manning , Manning is planning to make visits to at least a couple more teams. Chris Mortensen reports that, in the next few days, Manning will meet with head coach Joe Philbin of the Miami Dolphins, and head coach Mike Munchack of the Tennessee Titans . Here's Mort:
The meetings are scheduled to be away from the teams' facilities.
Manning, a free agent, definitely will not be choosing a team by 4 p.m. Tuesday, the commencement of the new league year.
His meeting with Philbin, the Dolphins' new coach, likely will be Monday night or Tuesday morning. His meeting with Munchak is expected to take place no later than Wednesday.
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Sizing up the TV coverage from the WGC-Cadillac Championship ... and away we go.
NBC has apparently found a new use for the MetLife blimp, after the network took advantage of the aerials shots and tracked Tiger Woods' every move following his WD from the Cadillac Championship.
We've seen some bizarre shots from the golf course over the years, but this ranked right up near the top. After NBC got word of Woods' decision to pull out of the tournament, after 11 holes, the blimp immediately started following Woods as he drove in a golf cart to his car.
No big deal, right? The problem was the overhead coverage didn't stop there. Trying to give viewers at home as much Tiger coverage as possible, the blimp continued to track Woods as he received ice packs through the window of his Mercedes, to the moment his car left the parking lot ... and started down the freeway.
"The MetLife blimp has got it covered," NBC's Dan Hicks said, as the blimp continued to track the car as it whizzed past other motorists. "Right above Tiger as he drives away. ... But we still don't know the extent of the injury."
What made the moment even more incredible was that we almost got the quote of the year from NBC analyst Peter Jacobsen. After returning from a commercial break, Jacobsen could be heard saying that Tiger "better not pull into a puh..." before cutting himself off right before he finished the sentence.
Now, we don't like to make assumptions around here, but that "puh" sounded like he was about to say "a Perkins," but that would have been too perfect, right? I'm sure it was the "Pub"restaurant in Miami. Yeah, that's it.
Regardless, I guess we found out the blimp has a place at tournaments after all.
More follows ...
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As Peyton Manning continues his free agency tour, a few teams have been bounced out of the tournament, whether of their own volition or not. Manning apparently had a very positive and productive visit with the Denver Broncos, according to Mike Klis of the Denver Post , and then, he wound his way down to Arizona, where he met with Cardinals officials, head coach Ken Whisenhunt, and receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
Manning is now out of Arizona, having returned to his Florida home. There's no indication whether he will meet with the Miami Dolphins, who are rumored to be ready to put on the full-court press, but Klis says in a very interesting report that Manning intends to make his decision by Tuesday -- that's the starting day of the new league year and the point where teams can officially negotiate with non-released free agents.
Klis wrote that Manning didn't being agent Tom Condon along on either visit, and that neither the Broncos not the Cardinals have made official offers. Manning apparently chose to make these visits more informal so that he could get a better sense of what each team was really like without the potentially adversarial aspect of money talk mucking things up. Manning was apparently very impressed with the Broncos organization after speaking with everyone in the front office, and the Cardinals countered Denver's more informal approach with more of a "red-carpet treatment."
What Klis knows, after speaking to several league sources, is that the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs are out of the running. Both teams contacted Manning and requested that he come to their facilities, but were rebuffed.
Klis also reports that the much-ballyhooed "surprise teams" in the run for Manning might be two: The Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers. Titans owner Bud Adams recently went public with his preference that Manning come back to Tennessee (where he went to college), and there appears to be a school of thought that if the 49ers can't come to terms with free-agent quarterback Alex Smith, they might post a late bid of interest.
This is all speculation at this point, but one thing's for sure -- the Manning derby is about to get even more interesting and intense. Stay tuned! | |
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All but one year of Joe Namath's 13-year NFL career was spent with the New York Jets, so the Hall of Fame quarterback knows a little bit about what Peyton Manning is going through right now. Manning, who missed the entirety of last season following multiple neck surgeries, was released from the Indianapolis Colts on Wednesday , drawing a close to a legacy that turned around the downtrodden franchise.
Much like Namath, who left the Jets in 1977 to play one season with the Los Angeles Rams, Manning is now looking for his first team since being drafted by the Colts 14 years ago.
"I made that move after 12 years and it was very difficult. So much newness involved and I made the move because I wanted to play," Namath told Yahoo! Sports.
"The move was made because the Rams' coach was Chuck Knox and I had a relationship with him, one dating back to high school, actually. I thought I was sound enough to play and the Jets were going through a rebuilding situation and Richard Todd wanted to play. But I see Peyton going to a contender; I can't see him going to someone who can't contend. If he goes to Miami, he'd be in that situation certainly."
Namath (a contributor to the Shutdown Corner Blog during the playoffs ), sees that Manning playing in Miami with the Dolphins would make sense, especially since the team finished last year on a strong note and has several offensive playmakers plus a good offensive line. In addition, Manning lives in south Florida, seemingly making it a natural fit.
On Friday, Manning visited the Denver Broncos, and the Arizona Cardinals will also get consideration from a quarterback who has thrown over 54,000 yards and 399 touchdowns in the regular season alone.
First and foremost, Namath is concerned with Manning's health, but he doesn't think teams should shy away from him just because of the neck surgeries and nerve impingement.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he can play another five years if he's healthy," Namath said.
"The number one thing with him is his arm strength because he does have excellent health otherwise .If anyone can swing this and be successful it is Peyton Manning — and let's not forget that Joe Montana was reasonably successful in Kansas City after all those years in San Francisco. I'm not concerned about him going somewhere new. I'd want to see him throw that ball. What about that arm strength?"
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It hasn't been the best month for Drew Brees. The New Orleans Saints quarterback, who's been the face of the franchise and a key cog in the city's turnaround from tragedy since 2006 was handed the franchise tag on March 3 ( a move that reportedly made him 'livid' ), and that was right around the time the hammer came down on former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and his alleged practice of paying his players to injure their opponents .
It was a black eye for the team, but it really hit Brees close to home when former Saints offensive lineman Kyle Turley went public and wondered what Brees might have known about the hits his teammates were putting out on other NFL quarterbacks. In Turley's mind, Brees knew all about it, and did nothing to stop it.
"Of course," Turley said on Miami radio about Brees' awareness of the situation. "You know everything that goes on in your locker room. It's not just a secret deal where okay here's these big incentives for all these bounties. I'm sure it wasn't just against Brett Favre, I'm sure it was the whole season. That stuff, you're a family, you're tight, you're close, and you share everything and there's nothing that you really don't know about people from your locker room.
"Of course. I'm sure he knew about it. After that big win when you come in that money isn't just secretly put in your locker, that money is taken out in front of everybody and thrown to you. That's the mentality that they want. That get rich quick thing is continuing to go on, and the attention to players safety, I don't know how much more I need to talk about it."
That's a lot for Turley to throw at Brees, who's been nothing but a stand-up guy throughout his NFL career. It's pretty implausible to think that a quarterback wouldn't know of such a practice, given how close players are in locker rooms, but Brees has earned the benefit of any doubt.
On Saturday, Brees released a public statement , writing a letter directly to his fans, on his personal website. You can read the full statement after the jump.
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| If North Carolina State misses the NCAA tournament for the sixth straight season Sunday, the Wolfpack may remember a disputed non-call in Saturday's ACC semifinal against North Carolina as the play that cost them a bid.
With the score tied at 67 apiece and 10 seconds to go, North Carolina point guard Kendall Marshall appeared to lower his shoulder into Alex Johnson in an attempt to create space, knocking the NC State defender to the ground. Referees didn't whistle a foul, so Marshall sank a wide-open bank shot in the paint, providing the final margin in the Tar Heels' 69-67 victory.
That NC State coach Mark Gottfried and his team were so incensed about the non-call was a product of the implications of the game. Not only could the Wolfpack have advanced to the ACC title game and snapped a 12-game game losing streak to their hated rivals, they also could have essentially locked up an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Because of the loss, however, North Carolina State (22-12, 9-7) will have an angst-ridden 24-hour wait until Sunday's selection show.
An ACC quarterfinal win over Virginia and a regular season sweep of fellow bubble hopeful Miami may yet earn NC State an at-large bid, but the Wolfpack's tournament resume is hardly unassailable. Their lone non-league win of note came over youthful Texas in November and they went 0-for-5 against the ACC's power trio, North Carolina, Duke and Florida State.
Having a key call go against North Carolina State will surely inspire conspiracy theorists to note the public tiff between the school and the ACC over referee Karl Hess ejecting Wolfpack legends Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta from a February game. Gottfried slammed both Hess and the league afterward , calling the ejections "weak" and "completely out of line 100 percent." | |
| El Tri heads to Miami to face a Colombia side that will be eager to impress its new coach. |
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