The Big Ten Network Is Starting To Cave

I don't feel like talking about last night's Ohio State loss and what it means for the Big Ten here today, but if you're really interested in what I have to say about it, I'll probably be writing something over at FanHouse on the subject later.

I will say that last night's Buckeye's loss is a huge blow for the perception of Big Ten football across the country.

Another huge blow for the Big Ten's perception as a conference this season has been directly related to the fact that most people can't see the Big Ten, at least not in Chicago. That's because the Big Ten Network and Comcast have been at war since the summer about how much cable customers should pay for BTN and yadda yadda blah blah blah.

If you're a sports fan in this town, you already know the story. You can't turn on the radio for more than 15 minutes without hearing an ad from one side of the debate telling you what assholes the other guys are being.

Well, after the football season ended, the talk kind of died down a bit. Now though, we've reached the Big Ten's conference schedule in basketball, and guess what, people would like to be able to watch it.

And it also seems the BTN is finally starting to relent on it's demands, and may actually show up on Comcast sometime in our lifetimes.

Big Ten Network President Mark Silverman said Monday he was "cautiously optimistic" an agreement could be reached with Comcast, the largest cable distributor in the area. The parties began having "productive conversations" in December, Silverman said.

"We're cautiously optimistic because we've addressed what we were told were their concerns," Silverman said. "We've been consistent all along. We want to get a deal done. We're looking forward to hearing from them, hopefully shortly."

Comcast spokesman Richard Ruggiero confirmed that discussions were ongoing. "We have continued the dialogue," he said. "We've said all along we're trying to work out an agreement that makes sense for all of our customers."

There is a different tone to what both sides are saying now as compared to what it was before. The key there is Silverman saying the BTN is addressing Comcast's concerns, which means they may finally be relenting on their insistence that customers pay $1.10 a month for the network.

The BTN also realizes that if they don't work out a deal with Comcast now, the cable company has no reason to even consider negotiating with them again until the summer before football season starts again.

Hopefully the two sides will get something hammered out soon, because I have to tell you, it's really hard for me to cover both football and basketball in the Big Ten for FanHouse when I can't see 75% of the games being played.

Don't get me wrong, I can get by on my good looks and charm for another 5 years, but I wouldn't mind actually knowing what I'm talking about as well.

Foul Balls

Joe Gibbs Is Retiring....Again - After honoring the memory of Sean Taylor with their 21-point loss to the Seahawks this last weekend, the Redskins will be saying goodbye to their head coach Joe Gibbs yet again.

Joe will be announcing his retirement later this afternoon.

After the toughest season of his Hall of Fame career, one that tested his leadership like never before, Joe Gibbs is stepping down.

He retired as coach and team president of the Washington Redskins on Tuesday, three days after a playoff loss ended an inspirational late-season run that followed the death of safety Sean Taylor.

Gibbs will remain as a special adviser to owner Dan Snyder and was to discuss his retirement at an afternoon news conference at Redskins Park.

Gibbs was never able to recapture the magic formula that he used in his first time around with the Redskins, but he did manage to get them to the playoffs twice. He even won a playoff game.

Still, there were too many instances during his return that showed the NFL game may have passed Joe by during all those years he spent on NASCAR infields, and getting out is probably the best thing for him and his legacy.

As for who will replace Gibbs in Washington, my money is on defensive coordinator Gregg (The second G is for victory.) Williams or Tom Cruise.

Blah Blah Roger Clemens Blah Blah - Ok, so I have no idea what to make of the phone call that Roger Clemens played at a press conference yesterday between himself and Brian McNamee.

Nobody says anything in the call, and nobody denies anything either. All I know is that Roger is fighting this thing more than any other player I've ever seen before, which in a way makes me wonder if he just might be telling the truth. I doubt it, but I can't be sure.

Which in reality, is probably all Clemens wants out of the entire thing. All I do know is that the back and forth between Clemens and McNamee is incredibly entertaining. I feel like I'm in high school again watching two girls talking shit to each other in the hallway for five minutes before finally getting down to business.

I don't know when it's going to happen, but sooner than later the hair pulling will begin, and the linoleum will be covered in extensions and blood.

At Least One Good Reason LSU Won - I already posted this video over at FanHouse, but I enjoyed it so much I'm going to post it here as well.

I'm partially concerned about this kid's future seeing as how he's being raised by people who give him bottles of beer and take him to parties, but at the same time, the kid's a natural born entertainer. He's working the crowd at an 8th grade level.



Let's hope his life takes a different path than that of another Louisiana born and bred entertainer who got their start at a young age.

There's Only One Way To Stop The Patriots or Colts

I don't mean to add to the hype surrounding this weekend's game between the undefeated Patriots and undefeated Colts this weekend, but let's be honest, it really is the only game this regular season that matters. They're the only two teams in the NFL that are playing for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The other 30 teams in the NFL are just jockeying for draft position.

If you've watched either team play this season, it should be obvious to you. Nobody can touch either of them. The Patriots are beating teams by an average score of 41-16. The 331 points they've scored in their first eight games is more points than Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, and St. Louis Rams have scored combined. Hell, they've almost outscored their entire division.

The Colts on the other hand, are undefeated as well, but they're only averaging a meager 32 points per game. Which helps explain why even though they're the defending champs, and haven't lost a game this season, they're currently 6 point underdogs at home against New England next week.

The Patriots and Bill Belichick have also taken a lot of heat around the league for "running up the score." On Sunday against the Redskins, the Patriots had a 38-0 lead at the end of three quarters, but that didn't stop them from throwing deep in the fourth quarter and trying to put more points on the board. It didn't stop them from going for it on fourth down either. They'd end the game winning by a score of 52-7.

As you'd expect, a couple of Redskins took exception to it. After the game Joe Gibbs said he didn't have a problem with what the Patriots did, but after the game ended he barely looked at Belichick as they shook hands, and Gibbs got the hell out of there.

Personally, I don't think it's possible to run up the score in the NFL. If it's a college game, and it's Michigan playing Appalachian State LSU playing Eastern Michigan and still trying to put points on the board in the fourth quarter even though they have a 72-0 lead, that's running up the score.

In the NFL though, it can't happen. These guys are all professionals. If you want a team to stop putting points on the board, stop them. That's all you can do.

Still, I completely understand why it's pissing teams off, and I wonder if Bill Belichick is really thinking this through. I mentioned it in last week's Spread Em, that the only way other teams have a chance to beat the Patriots is to take out Tom Brady. Everybody knows this, but these aren't the days of Butkus and Nitschke, nobody is going to try and kill Brady on purpose.

At least, they weren't going to try. The more the Patriots dominate their opponents, and embarrass them, the more likely it is to happen. At some point, somebody is going to snap and dive right at Tom Brady's knees.

They'll take the 15-yard penalty, and they'll take the fine, because in the end it's worth it. Without Tom Brady playing quarterback, the Patriots are just an average NFL team.

The same could be said about the Colts and Peyton Manning, but nobody hates the Colts enough to try and do it.

The question becomes, would it be acceptable to intentionally try and take out Brady?

In my opinion, hell yes it would. I'm not the only one that feels this way either. Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post and Pardon the Interruption agrees. He was asked about it in an online chat yesterday, and he admitted as much.

Tom Brady's Knee: I can understand Bill Belichick's desire to crush every team in the NFL, but why keep your franchise QB in there to do it? One cheap shot helmet to the knee and it's goodbye Super Bowl unless Cassell suddenly gets good.

Michael Wilbon: You're absolutely right. And if I was on the opposing team, I'd hit Tom Brady with everything I had as late as I could and take the penalty and join the fight that would surely follow. Football is a violent game and there's got to be somebody out there sharpening his fans for the Patriots Golden Boy in the 4th quarter one of these weeks.

I just want to make one thing clear though, I don't mean dive at his knees. Wilbon also made that clear later in the chat as well. I don't think that teams should take cheap shots at Brady and intentionally try and injure him, I just mean they need to do everything in their power to knock him out.

Think of the 85 Bears for a second. What was that defense's main objective? They weren't shy about telling you that their goal was to take out the quarterback. Knock his ass out, and when they bring in the backup, knock his ass out too.

This is what current NFL defenses need to do.

If you're a defensive lineman, and you have a shot to hit Brady right now, you have to put everything you have behind it, and lay him out. Drive him into the ground with your weight on top of him. Maybe you'll get lucky and dislocate his shoulder.

The one flaw with this theory though, is that you have to get to Tom Brady first. Have you seen his numbers this season? They're absolutely mind-boggling. Look at this line.

• Passing yards - 2,431
• Completion Per. - 74.2% (74.2%!)
• Passing TD's - 30
• Rushing TD's - 2
• Interceptions - 2
• Rating - 136.2

That's absolutely insane. The man is responsible for 32 touchdowns, and he's only thrown two interceptions. Do you know why his numbers are so amazing?

Because he isn't getting touched.

That's the flaw of the "Kill Tom Brady" strategy. Nobody can get to him. The Patriots offensive line is just wiping out defensive lines and linebackers. It seems that everytime Brady drops back into the pocket, he has about a minute and a half to find somebody open.

So that means every opportunity is crucial. If you have a shot to hit Tom Brady, even if it's late, you have to take it at this point. If you have a shot to hit Peyton Manning, you have to take it.

It's the only way anybody in the NFL has a chance to beat either of these two teams. If they don't do it, the rest of this NFL season will serve absolutely no purpose except for gambling reasons and fantasy football.

Though there are plenty of people who will tell you that's all the NFL is for in the first place.

Foul Balls

Brian Urlacher has a blog - Brian Urlacher and I have a lot in common. We're both athletic freaks, and we're both big time celebrities in Chicago. But there's another thing we have in common right now as Urlacher has started his own blog. You may have noticed that Urlacher has been pretty short with the Chicago media lately, limiting himself to one word answers, and kinda just being a dick. So he's started this new blog as a way to communicate with his fans, and answer questions from Fox Sports' Jay Glazer.

You’re at home against a terrible road team and you didn’t just lose, they walked through your defense. Is this as low as it gets for you?

This has been one of the most frustrating times of my career. The feeling after a loss like yesterday is terrible. It’s an awful feeling. You know going in that you have a great game plan but we don’t execute it. The coaches had a great plan for us, we just messed it up. We’re so inconsistent on both sides of the ball. Defensively? One day we stop the run, the next game we don’t but we do stop the pass. The next time out we’ll stop the run again but we can’t stop the pass.

I've no idea whether or not he's going to start posting YouTube videos of people getting hit in the nuts. Until then, he'll never be a real blogger.

Boras and A-Rod Are Douchebags - Scott Boras and Alex Rodriguez are taking a lot of heat right now for the timing of A-Rod's announcement he was opting out of his contract with the Yankees. They had ten days after the end of the World Series to decide what to do, and they chose to make the announcement during the middle of game 4 on Sunday night.

You see, they wanted to upstage the sports biggest showcase. Because, in case you weren't aware of it, they are more important than the game. As you'd expect, MLB is slightly upset by it.

"We were very disappointed that Scott Boras would try to upstage our premier baseball event of the season with his announcement," Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said Monday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

"There was no reason to make an announcement last night other than to try to put his selfish interests and that of one individual player above the overall good of the game," DuPuy said. "Last night and today belong to the Boston Red Sox, who should be celebrated for their achievement, and to the Colorado Rockies, who made such an unbelievable run to the World Series."

I'm not sure I understand all the uproar though. Haven't we always known that Boras and Rodriguez are douchebags? Is this a shock to most people? Personally, the only way I'd have been surprised is if Rodriguez didn't find a way to steal the spotlight away from the World Series.

Oh, and Cubs fans? He's not coming here, so don't fool yourselves.