More football. That’s what every fan wants.

NFL owners are eager to increase the regular season from 16 to 18 games. The players aren’t so sure. During a five-hour meeting at a posh hotel in downtown Atlanta, the push to add two more games to the regular season picked up steam with the 2010 NFL football season just around the corner.

“I think it’s a win-win all around,” said Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots. The owners also unanimously approved Stan Kroenke’s proposal to purchase majority ownership of the St. Louis Rams, assuming he turns over control of two other teams he owns — the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche — to his son.

Kroenke owns 40 percent of the downtrodden Rams and exercised his right to purchase the rest of the team from the Rosenbloom family for a reported $750 million. “Obviously, all of us know and respect Stan,” commissioner Roger Goodell said. “He’s been a terrific owner in the NFL and we’re confident he will continue to be a great owner.”

Kroenke must turn over operational and financial control of the Nuggets and Avalanche to his 30-year-old son, Josh, by the end of the year. He must give up his majority stake in the teams by December 2014 to meet NFL rules against cross-ownership of franchises in other NFL cities.

But talks on the expanded season dominated most of the…

Read More » NFL Regular Season to extend from 16 to 18 Games?

Of course, he needs to save the Raiders first.

It took two preseason games for Jason Campbell to stop feeling like the deposed quarterback of the Washington Redskins and to begin feeling like the rightful quarterback of the Oakland Raiders for the 2010 NFL football season.

The Oakland Raiders acquired quarterback Jason Campbell from the Washington Redskins for a 4th round draft pick in 2012. An while Campbell may be an upgrade for the struggling Raiders franchise, the expectations and hopes should be kept under control in Oakland because Jason Campbell is far from the savior that will save the bay area franchise.

“It was weird when I first got here,” Jason Campbell said late Saturday night, standing in a rapidly emptying visitor’s locker room at Soldier Field after he made his second preseason start for the Raiders. “But as months have gone by, it’s kind of like getting farther away now. Last week, the first time being in a different uniform playing a game just felt different. But this week, it was like, ‘Okay, you got that first game out of the way. Now let’s turn to the second game”.

Campbell’s five-year tenure with the Redskins was all about change. He endured new head coaches, offensive coordinators and offensive systems. When the Redskins – under another new coach, Mike Shanahan, and a new general manager, Bruce Allen – stopped believing that the former first-round draft choice was the answer for them at quarterback, the biggest change of all came when Campbell was traded to the Raiders in April.

The Redskins’ new regime had traded for Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, making Campbell’s…

Read More » Can Jason Campbell save his career in Oakland?

It seems the city of Denver is more excited about an unproven young quarterback than somebody who has established himself to be their legitimate starter.

Every day, Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton hums passes across the team’s practice fields with a precision he’s never quite had before. His receivers marvel that he is so accurate they don’t have to break stride or reach to catch the ball. They say he is as good as they have seen him. One, Brandon Lloyd, says the ball “just sticks in your hands.”

If the Broncos can escape mediocrity in the 2010 NFL football season, Orton will probably be a major reason why. And yet the better he looks, the more the fans who visit training camp refuse to care. They don’t shout his name. They don’t wear his jersey. And when practice ends nobody screams or begs for him, or even shows him a whit of loyalty.

Such is life in the summer of Tim Tebow, where the third-string quarterback is the most popular man on the field. “It’s been an interesting summer,” Orton says with a small laugh. He then waves his hand dismissively.

“I don’t care about the glare at all,” Orton elaborates. “Listen, I live to play football. I don’t want to be anything other than a football player in regards to all the fanfare. I just want to play football.”

It is not an indictment of Tebow that the team’s first-round draft pick is not ready yet for the NFL. He was always going to be a project that would take two or three years before he develops into a starter. But maybe no one understood just how good Orton was about to become. And while it is still only the preseason and…

Read More » Come On Denver, Show Kyle Orton Some Love

You read it, there’s dissension within the Cardinals camp.

Quarterbacks Matt Leinart and Derek Anderson know something about the issue more than anyone else in Arizona, especially after last Thursday, when Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt announced that Anderson was replacing Leinart as the starter in Saturday’s preseason game against the Bears in Chicago.

“I don’t think we’ve performed the way we’ve needed to perform on offense in the preseason,” Whisenhunt said after practice at Vanderbilt University. “And we’re just looking at different players at different spots, trying to find a little groove. It’s a great opportunity to look at combinations of different personnel.”

Whisenhunt insisted that Saturday’s game is not a “dress rehearsal” for the 2010 NFL football season, even though his players will be dressed and rehearsing. But the competition at quarterback has obviously tightened, and Whisenhunt is curious about how both players will react in different roles.

Matt Leinart declined any comment until Friday after Whisenhunt announced the decision. Derek Anderson chose not to say much. “I think the last couple weeks have been good, and I just want to keep building on that,” he said.

There are other changes in the starting lineup. Greg Toler will replace Trumaine McBride at left cornerback. Rookie Daryl Washington will start at inside linebacker for Pago Togafau, and other reserves, such as guard Deuce Lutui, could get some time with the starting units.

But those are honky-tonk acts compared with the…

Read More » Leinart or Anderson? Who’ll start for Arizona?

The seeds are in and just like every other Grand Slam tournament, we’re rooting for Maria Sharapova to avoid yet another early round exit.

That’s right, the seeds for the 2010 U.S. Open are in and Caroline Wozniacki will quickly get to prove whether she’s a deserving top seed or whether she’s Dinara Safina 2.0.

You see, the 20-year-old had the misfortune of seeing the name of a certain Maria Sharapova drawn to the top half of her quarter, setting up a possible fourth-round matchup and she knows that the entire male population, except maybe for her dad, will be rooting against her.

On the bottom, Li Na and 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova are scheduled for a fourth-rounder of their own.

The bottom half of the left side is wide open for Jelena Jankovic. For what is anyone’s guess. No. 15-seed Yanina Wickmayer has been mired in a slump this summer, but a return to the semis at Flushing Meadows isn’t out of the question.

Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva is perched at the bottom of the quarter and a potential crying jag in the form of young American Coco Vandeweghe sits in round two.

Melanie Oudin couldn’t have asked for a better draw. The struggling teen gets a qualifier in round one and then another winnable match against either a qualifier or No. 117 Sophie Ferguson in the second.

This is the most wide open of the quarters, which has to…

Read More » Can Maria Sharapova go deep for us at the US Open?

The AP preseason poll was released and the Boise State football team landed at No. 3 – the highest ranking in school history.

You read it, the Boise State Broncos received the highest ranking ever for a non-BCS team, and high enough to please pretty much every Bronco fan this 2010 NCAA college football season.

After the jump, view the full AP poll along with some additional notes and feedback. Then celebrate in the comments. The Boise State Broncos were No. 3 already and that’s even before any games have been played.

The Alabama Crimson Tide took the No. 1 spot followed by the Ohio State Buckeyes. Rounding up the top five are Florida and Texas.

The Boise State football program opened fall camp before the season and learned what every expert has been predicting since the Broncos’ season-ending victory over TCU in the Fiesta Bowl last January — the Broncos will start the season ranked in the top five.

Boise State head coach Chris Petersen addressed the media after practice, but he was characteristically non-descript when the line of questioning turned toward the polls.

“We knew we would be ranked high, but if we’re ranked high at the end of the year, that’s a good thing,” Petersen said. “Right now, I don’t know if the bull’s-eye can get bigger. It’s been big for a while and there’s been a lot of talk and a lot of hype. That’s how we think of it.”

“That doesn’t really help our situation. Now, we’ve just got to…”

Read More » Are the Boise State Broncos that good this season?

It seems that is the trend in sports these days.

Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony said today that he will continue pondering whether to sign a three-year, $65 million contract extension offer from the team coming to the 2010 NBA basketball season, problem is, it looks like he’s leaning towards a trade more.

Asked if he had a timetable by when he’d like to have a final decision, Camelo Anthony said, “No. I’m just taking my time with it,” he said during his basketball camp at ThunderRidge High School. And without a team-imposed deadline, Anthony has all the time he could ever want. League rules say he has until June 30, 2011 to sign the extension or pick up the option on his current contract, which would pay him $18.5 million for the 2011-12 season.

He’s already said winning and a roster with the potential to win are factors. The Denver Nuggets recently parted ways with team executives, Mark Warkentien and Rex Chapman. Anthony is being kept in the loop in the team’s search for a new general manager, but he says that person won’t factor into whether he signs the extension or not.

“I think my decision is my decision,” Anthony said. “I don’t think it’s based on who is in the front office or anything like that. I’m going to make my decision based on my feelings.”

What will factor heavily is progress on a new collective bargaining agreement. Anthony has attended the last two meetings, one just a few days ago in New York, where owners and players had productive dialogue.

Depending on the layout of the new CBA — if there is one…

Read More » Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets having a divorce too?

Guess who’s coming back to Boston.

Detroit Tigers outfielder Johnny Damon confirmed to reporters that he has been claimed on waivers by the Red Sox this 2010 MLB baseball season.

“My teammates are making this decision easier by saying they want me to stay,” Johnny Damon said after their 12-3 win over Kansas City. “My gut and everything else tells me that Detroit’s the place for me.”

Damon, though, said he wants to talk to Tigers president Dave Dombrowski before making his final decision. His contract includes a clause that gives him veto power over trades to all but eight teams. Because the Red Sox aren’t one of those eight clubs, he can block a return to Boston, where he was a long-haired, bearded folk hero as a key part of the 2004 “idiots.”

Detroit could work out a trade with Boston to complete the deal if Damon gives the OK, and that might bring the Tigers a prospect in return.

“I understand if it could help the Tigers in the future, I have to look at it that way, but my teammates are making it much easier on me,” he said. “If they want me to stay, teammates normally win out.”

It is still unclear whether the Red Sox claimed Damon in order to try to acquire him or to prevent him from joining another contending team, such as the Tampa Bay Rays, who are in need of an outfielder. If Damon decides he wants to return to Boston and the Red Sox are interested, the team has 48 hours to work out a trade with the Tigers, who also could let him go for nothing or decide to pull him back off waivers and keep him.

Damon has hit .270 with seven home runs and 40 RBIs during his…

Read More » An Encore for Johnny Damon and the Boston Red Sox?

Ugh.

One of the biggest reasons Brett Favre decided to return to the Minnesota Vikings for the 2010 NFL football season was his familiarity with an offense that he enjoyed being around so much in 2009.

Suddenly, in some ways, Brett Favre feels like he’s starting all over again. His two favorite targets — Sidney Rice and Percy Harvin — have struggled with ailments throughout the preseason. Rice had hip surgery Monday and will likely miss the first half of the regular season while Harvin has hardly practiced because of recurring migraines.

“Not a lot different than last year as far as chemistry is concerned,” Favre said Wednesday. “It would have been nice to come in and go to bat with the guys that wefinished with last year, but that is part of football. Every coach will say the same thing. Regardless of who is put in there we have to play the same way.”

With Favre leading the way, the Vikings changed from a run-oriented offense in the first three years under coach Brad Childress into a pass-first unit that finished second in the league in scoring.

Vikings receivers caught 207 of the 377 passes completed last year, nearly all of which were thrown by Favre. When Favre stepped into the huddle in San Francisco on Sunday night, Rice and Harvin were not even in the stadium, meaning 143 of last season’s receptions weren’t around.

Bernard Berrian (55 catches) and Greg Lewis (eight) are the…

Read More » Brett Favre did return to the Vikings, his receivers didn’t

That’s according to Gerhard Berger.

Gerhard Berger doubts that Sebastian Vettel is currently the best German driver on the Formula One grid. According to the former McLaren and Ferrari driver, there is nothing now to separate the Red Bull man from his young compatriot at Mercedes, Nico Rosberg, this 2010 F1 season.

“For me, Nico is on par with Vettel. He just needs the right car now to begin winning,” Berger told Auto Motor und Sport.

“He has shown this year that he makes very few mistakes, that his setup is usually right, and that he is mostly ahead of Michael Schumacher. If Rosberg and Vettel were sitting in identical cars, I would not know who to put my money on.”

Another young German to have caught Berger’s eye this 2010 F1 season is Force India driver Adrian Sutil. And it was not something the Austrian expected.

“Last year I was laughing at him. I would never have believed he has this much potential. His speed is tremendous, and his mistakes have reduced dramatically. For me, with Rosberg, he is the surprise of the season.”

Berger also sees a bright future ahead for GP2 champion Nico Hulkenberg after a year of learning the ropes in his rookie Formula One season.

“He is in a learning phase. He makes many more mistakes than Vettel and Rosberg did when they began, but Sutil was the same. I think Hulkenberg’s mistakes are normal for a first year. If everything goes right, he is almost at the level of Barrichello – and that’s a compliment.”

“Barrichello is certainly the best man of the…”

Read More » F1 superstar Sebastian Vettel hasn’t done shit yet