Best of luck to the four teams still fighting for that Lombardi Trophy. I can see any of the four leaving New Orleans in a couple of weeks with that trophy.
Three years ago, Championship Sunday was more fun with the Minnesota Vikings playing in one the games. They'll be back. Soon, I hope.
The Ravens Anquan Boldin has long been one of my favorite receivers. It's a joy to watch him catch the football. He recently said that Joe Flacco is the most talented quarterback that he's ever played with. That list includes likely Hall of Famer Kurt Warner.
Boldin and fellow receiver Torrey Smith, along with tight ends Dennis Pitta and Ed Dickson, give Flacco some real nice targets. Still, Flacco doesn't get enough credit for the great things that he's brought to Baltimore's offense. He's led the Ravens to the playoffs every year that he's been in the league. That alone should get him some mention among the league's elite throwers. In five seasons he's already won nearly as many playoff games as Peyton Manning.
At the other end of playoff success is Atlanta's Matt Ryan. Taken first in the same draft as Flacco, Ryan has had little success in the playoffs. He won his first playoff game last week. Granted, Flacco's Ravens team was a much better team than Ryan's Falcons when each entered the NFL. Flacco helped his already good team get better. I think that both are terrific quarterbacks. Having their teams in conference championship games is proof enough of that. The talking heads should include both among the league's best.
Then we have Tom Brady.
And Colin Kaepernick. My fellow Turlocker has a lot of heat on him these days. Nearly 450 total yards against the Green Bay Packers last week. Over 180 yards rushing. Cover of Sports Illustrated. Oh my. I'd say that there's little doubt that the San Francisco 49ers are his team now. It won't always come as easy as it did last week but Kaepernick has the talent, the smarts and the leadership to be an excellent quarterback for years.
San Francisco 49ers safety Dashon Goldson was fined $10,0000 for another late helmet-to-helmet hit in last week's game against the Green Bay Packers. It was his fifth unnecessary roughness penalty of the season. The NFL tried to suspend Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed for a similar number of hits over the last five seasons. Reed had the suspension dropped on appeal. Goldson is out of control. For every step that the NFL tries to take to cut down on serious head injuries players like Goldson force the entire league several steps back.
I like the defensive coaching hires that the Dallas Cowboys have made so far. New defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin has been one of the best defensive coaches for years. Rod Marinelli is an excellent line coach. The Cowboys have run a 3-4 for a while so their personnel is facing quite a shift to Kiffin's 4-3 cover-2 scheme. DeMarcus Ware at defensive end will be something to see. He's such an amazing football player that I'm sure the switch will be smooth.
This Manti Te'o nonsense is really annoying. I'm so sick of ridiculous off-the-field stuff dominating the football airwaves. We have two great championship games today. A Super Bowl in two weeks. Senior Bowl practices this week. There is real live football stuff. Who cares if Te'o had a girlfriend that he's never met? With the advances of technology and social media everybody has "friends" that they've never met. "Friends" that we think we know. Hell, some of our old facebook buddies may be nothing like the people that we thought we knew in high school. There's a lot of trust and assumptions out there. Are we pointing at Te'o simply because he was caught in something that everyone should fear? I'd rather be talking about Manti Te'o's 40 time and whether he can drop in pass coverage.
The deadline for college players to declare for early entry into the NFL Draft has passed. The 73 or 74 players that have declared for the draft is a new record. The inexact number is a little confusing. I've seen two lists of 73 players. One list is missing North Carolina St. defensive back David Amerson and includes Alabama tackle T.J. Fluker. The other has Amerson but there is no Fluker to be found. I'm guessing that there are 74. That would break the record of 73 set moments ago. An incredible 11 players are leaving LSU early. One is Brad Wing. A punter. He's an excellent punter but I've never seen a specialist leave school early. I have nothing against punters looking for early entry into the NFL. I'm just a little surprised. Another surprise to me is Cal corner Steve Williams. He played great this season against some terrific receivers in the Pac-12 but I really thought that he could benefit from more time in college. Maybe I'm just being a selfish Cal fan. Williams obviously feels that he's ready and I wish him luck.
Yesterday marked the beginning of the college all-star games with the East-West Shrine game and the newer NFLPA Bowl and something called the Raycom All-Star game. As the NFL Draft has gotten bigger, it was always big but it's a media bonanza now, these games have become more forward looking rather than the post season honor that they were originally meant to be. They are now the first of the Draft interview process. In that capacity the week of practices are seen as more important than the game itself. The practices are where the future employers corner the players and see what's up. It's a strange thing. The games and practices are most important to the small school players and the players pegged for the later round of the drafts. The small school players get a chance to show that they can play with the "big boys." The later round guys are putting tape out there trying to climb the draft boards. Each round they climb increases their chance of sticking with an NFL team as well as the contract that they are offered.
For me, I'm scouting these all-star games for the Minnesota Vikings. They don't know it but I am. I was most interested in the linebackers. I see receiver as the Vikings greatest need but linebacker isn't too far behind. I wanted to see players like Howard's Keith Pough, Iowa St.'s A.J. Klein and New Hampshire's Matt Evans.
Howard University is in Washington D.C. I'm a little curious how the Shrine Game people figured that Pough should play on the West team.
I'm thinking 49ers-Patriots.
UPDATE: Fluker found. Alabama tackle T.J. Fluker is a junior that has graduated. Even though he has eligibility remaining he's not considered an early entry.
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