American Sports Thread

[Minder]

New Sports Illustrated NFL website headed up by Peter King, looks really good.

http://mmqb.si.com/

[gallsman]

Anyone been following the Biogenesis scandal in Baseball? A-Rod banned yesterday for 211 games, which puts him out through the end of next season.

Ban effective from Thursday, so he made his season debut last night and is appealing, so could conceivably play the rest of this season.

Seems the tide of public opinion (and perhaps more importantly the players' union) is finally turning against the cheats.

[Syferus]

Anyone been following the Biogenesis scandal in Baseball? A-Rod banned yesterday for 211 games, which puts him out through the end of next season.

Ban effective from Thursday, so he made his season debut last night and is appealing, so could conceivably play the rest of this season.

Seems the tide of public opinion (and perhaps more importantly the players' union) is finally turning against the cheats.

The way I heard it the Yankees would love it if A-Rod retired as his inflated $100+ million contract would be voided, crazy money for a fella nearing 40.

Braun ratting out the rest to save his skin means A-Rod doesn't have much hope of over- turning the ban. Out-thought on all fronts, it seems.

[NAG1]

Money made and not a matter of doesnt care but could live without the big contract. Probably not the way he saw his career ending if it is the case but all the same he is one of the richest sports people out there.

[gallsman]

Anyone been following the Biogenesis scandal in Baseball? A-Rod banned yesterday for 211 games, which puts him out through the end of next season.

Ban effective from Thursday, so he made his season debut last night and is appealing, so could conceivably play the rest of this season.

Seems the tide of public opinion (and perhaps more importantly the players' union) is finally turning against the cheats.

The way I heard it the Yankees would love it if A-Rod retired as his inflated $100+ million contract would be voided, crazy money for a fella nearing 40.

Braun ratting out the rest to save his skin means A-Rod doesn't have much hope of over- turning the ban. Out-thought on all fronts, it seems.

The Yankees would absolutely be over the moon if the contract was voided and I absolutely believe they've helped out MLB in whatever way they can.

Did Braun rat the rest of them out? By all accounts Braun was ready to take them on again (he got off a positive test on a technicality last year) but when presented with the evidence, couldn't wait to fall over himself to make a deal and has got off very lightly with a 65 game ban. He ludicrously even gets to keep his MVP award from 2011.

A-Rod apparently tried to make a deal late in the game but Selig was said to be furious with his press conference on Friday and they were determined to suspend him for as long as possible. There were a few rumours that MLB would push for a lifetime ban but they wouldn't have the jurisdiction for it and it would have been too much for the MLBPA.

[Capt Pat]

It is great to see these cheats getting caught out eventually. Better late than never.

[gallsman]

It is great to see these cheats getting caught out eventually. Better late than never.

The worrying thing is that they were caught by a leak from a disgruntled employee of the clinic, not drug testers.

[RealSpiritof98]

Manning brothers love it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn5zytfm9No

[Oraisteach]

Stop the season now.  Browns over the Rams 20-10 at the half.  It's our Superbowl.

[Oraisteach]

Early in 2nd qtr, Browns beating Lions 17-0. Pre-season but beggars can't be choosers.

[Oraisteach]

Browns lead 17-3 at the half.  Now the 2nd & 3rd stringers.

[Oraisteach]

Browns win 24-6.  Lot of big injuries, though.

[AZOffaly]

I think Browns will be decent this year, maybe 7-9. Hoping for 8-8 for the Cardinals as well. Palmer is definitely an upgrade on anything at QB (as is Stanton at backup). Fitz, Floyd and Roberts are three good receivers, and Rob Hausler can also be effective at End in the passing game.

They've done a lot of work on the O-Line as well, which should be an awful lot better.
Not so sure about running back, unfortunately. Rashard Mendenhall might be great or a complete bust. Ryan Williams is too injury prone. Interesting rookie there at #3 in the depth chart is Stepfan Taylor, the rookie from Stanford. He ran hard for Stanford last year, in a hard running team.

Defense should be okay as well. The backend should be okay with Yeremiah Bell, a FA from the Jets at Safety, and Tyronn Matthie (the Honey BAdger from LSU) competing with Rashad Johnson at the other safety spot. Cornerback Patrick Peterson seems to be maturing nicely and teh other starting Corner should be Jarraud Powers or Antoine Cason. They have good competition behind them too.

The linebackers should be young and hard hitting, Sam Acho was a great rookie. Karlos Dansby is covering for Daryl Washington but when Washington returns he will pick it up. Kevin Minter is wowing people at training camp, hitting like a lunatic. He played well against Green Bay's 1s as well. The front 3 in the 3-4 should be Calais Campbell and Darnell Dockett at ends (huge men) and Dan Wiliams on the inside stuffing the run.

It looks great on paper, but you know injuries and the unexpected will happen, but I still hope for at least 8 wins in a very, very tough division.

The Cardinals Starting line up figures to be....

Offense

Left Tackle - Levi Brown 7 year vet out of Penn State (Returning)
Left Guard - Johnathan Cooper Rookie (1st Round out of North Carolina )
Centre - Lyle Sendlein 7 year vet out of Texas (Returning)
Right Guard Daryn Colledge - 8 year vet out of Boise State (Returning)
Right Tackle - Eric Winston 8 year vet out of Miami (signed from Kansas City)

Tight End - Rob Housler 3 year vet out of Florida Atlantic (Returning)
Tight End - Jeff King 8 year vet out of Virginia Tech (Returning)

WR1 - Larry Fitzgerald - 10 year vet out of Pittsburgh (Returning)
WR2 - Michael Floyd - second year out of Notre Dame (Returning)

RB - Rashard Mendenhall - 6 year vet out of Illinois (Signed from the Steelers)

QB - Carson Palmer - 11 year vet out of USC (signed from the Raidas)

I still think we'll see a lot more 12 formation (1 TE and 2 RBs including Taylor or Williams) as well as 3 and 4 wide receiver sets with Roberts instead of King.

Defense looks good in a 3-4 it should be

DE - Calais Campbell - 6 year vet out of Miami (Returning)
NT - Dan Williams - 4 year vet out of Tennessee (Returning)
DE - Darnell Dockett - 10 year vet out of Florida State (Returning)

Strongside Linebacker - Sam Acho - 3 year guy out of Texas (Returning)
Inside Linebacker - Jasper Brinkley - 5 year vet out of South Carolina (Signed from the Vikings)
Inside  Linebacker - Karlos Dansby - 10 year vet out of Auburn (Signed back from the Dolphins)
Weakside Linebacker - Lorenzo Alexander - 7 year vet out of Cal (Signed from the Redskins)

LCB - Patrick Peterson - 3 year man out of LSU (Returning)
RCB - Jerraud Powers - 5 year vet out of Auburn (Signed from the Colts)
Strong Safety - Yeremiah Bell - 10 year vet out of Eastern Kentucky (Signed from the JETS)
Free Safety - Rashad Johnson - 5 year vet out of Alabama (Returning)

I'm excited and ready

[Denn Forever]

I heard that NBC now have rights to show EPL games.  Will this affect other American games' popularity?

[AZOffaly]

I heard that NBC now have rights to show EPL games.  Will this affect other American games' popularity?

You mean NFL? Not a hope.

Baseball is currently in a bit of trouble I feel. The NFL is an absolute bohemoth, and NCAA football is also enormous. I read somewhere that the NFL Pro Bowl (Which is a joke of game the NFL are embarassed about) had more viewers than any of the NBA playoff games apart from some of the finals themselves, more than all Stanley Cup games, more than MLB world series games. It's huge and showing soccer will not affect that, certainly in the short term.

I've seen soccer emerge in the US markets, but while it is a game played by many, and a generation are growing up playing it, and there is access to EPL soccer on cable over there, I've not seen anything that would make me think it is going to dominate the way it does in other parts of the world. It may well threaten Hockey for the #4 spot.

Look at this, it's frightening if you are an administrator of MLB, NBA or NHL. The top 100 sports broadcasts in 2012 for men aged 25-50+ AND men aged 18-49 had

1-20 ALL NFL programmes *including those pre and post game shows for the superbowl!* and about 60 of the top 100.  The Olympics were on as well that year.

http://www.tvb.org/media/file/2012_M18-49_Top-100-Sports.pdf
http://www.tvb.org/media/file/2012_M25-54_Top-100-Sports.pdf