Tiger's Return

Tiger Woods returned to the PGA tour this week and the excitement has returned to pro golf. Tiger who was coming off ligament damage and a broken leg said he felt a little soreness but said that, that was expected after winning his first match tiger went down in the second round to a inferior opponent but after a lay-off like his it is understandable to be a little rusty. It's only a matter of time before the Tiger is back in rare form.

Haynesworth Gone

Okay people I know I said I wanted to pickup Albert Haynesworth in the free agent market but thanks to the Washington redskins that is no longer possible. Dan Snieder gave Mr. Haynesworth a 7 year 100 million dollar contract making him the first ever 100 million dollar defensive player. I guess this recession we are in isn't affecting everyone all the same because the redskins also signed DeAngelo Hall to a fifty million dollar deal which i really don't understand because he was constantly getting beat in '08. Hopefully we (The Bengals) can still make a splash in free agency with a big name acquisition.

Will Crabtree's injury affect his draft status

I believe that Michael Crabtree will be just fine come draft day even though he has a hairline stress fracture in his left foot. He said he hurt it a couple weeks ago while training with ex- Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson. Crabtree found out about the injury this weekend when he arrived for the scouting combine even though he pulled out of that workout he has already stated he was going to hold off on surgery until after his pro day on March 26 because he feels no pain in the foot. With that being said I think if it had been me I would have ran at the combine got the surgery immediately after that and moved on with my ten weeks so hopefully I could be done by time rookie mini camps and ota's start. I still feel as though Crabtree is the best wide receiver if not the best player in this year's draft and regardless of his forty time i think he will still go high first round because he is a flat out beast of a ball player. Back to back Bilitnekoff winner as a red shirt freshman and sophomore, holds every receiving record in NCAA over that span of time 41 touchdowns in just 2 seasons. and I could go on and on. The scouts put to much emphasis on the measurable's of a player in my opinion so much stock is put into a forty time when speed doesn't necessarily make a great football player. That was proven with Anquan Boldin who ran a 4.7 forty and with Jerry Rice ran a 4.6 forty Chris Carter was a 4.59 4.6 guy so was Michael Irving and the list of great average speed receiver's goes on. But it is about game speed and that's what they all had and that's what Crabtree has.

I want Haynesworth

Albert Haynesworth is reportedly testing the free agent market and man wouldn't it be nice if we ( the Bengals) got him. Supposedly Tennessee offered him a 4 year deal worth 36 million but he decided to weigh his options and I think he is out of there for sure. We were already under the cap by a nice ways and with the almost certain release of T.J. and possibly Chad we should have even more money to go out and solidify our defense one step more. Because we all know defense wins Super Bowls we went from the 27th ranked unit to the 12th ranked in new d-coordinator Mike Zimmer's first year with a beast of a plug like that in our middle Kieth rivers at the second level and steadily improvements to that secondary we could be a force to be reckoned with not to mention the potential defensive talent we will acquire through the draft. I know I might be a little overzealous but we need a big free agent splash and this is the perfect one but if we get any big name game changer i will be pleased. We can't afford another year of our key off season pick-ups being Antwan Odom and Ben Utech.

How come no number one ranked college team can manage to stay there

A big trend seems to be growing in the world of college basketball, no number one team can stay ranked that for more than a week. I don't know if we should credit this to more parody among the teams and the talent pool across the country is evening out or these young men get the big head and lose focus. I think it is probably a combination of both, the talent on teams has gotten a lot better but these young players start believing the hype from all the people on campus and run into a buzz saw. The fact that the other team knows they are playing the number ranked team may play a part too because we all know everyone gets up to play number one, and number one should know that they are wearing a huge bullseye. Maybe what this is really saying is, that rankings are over rated and they don't matter until the last one comes out mid april.

Bengals are crazy for franchise tagging shane graham

I cant believe that the Bengals organization chose to put the franchise tag on the place kicker. True enough he is the fourth most accurate place kicker of all time but we are in dire straights right now at a lot of key positions and to be honest our kicking game was not a real big area of concern for me last year. We need to be focusing on O-LINE and PASS RUSHERS and our soap opera wide receiving core. I'm not saying that we need to keep both of them around but to lose both T.J. and Chad is a big pill for me to swallow right now. I guess we will see next week when the free agency period starts up and the bidding wars begin.

I hate Pittsburgh

I am really angry that the Steelers have won yet another super bowl, 2 in the last 4 years and a record 6 total. However I do want to congradulate my old college teamate Nate Washington for winning his second ring and also Andre Frazier a hometown product winning his second ring aswell. As for the rest of the Steeler's go to h*ll. I feel that Arizona should have definitely won the game but shoulda coulda's and woulda's just don't when ball games. Even though the refs didn't make it much easier for the Cardinals either, not only do I think they blew the call on the last play where they ruled it a fumble when his arm was clearly coming forward, I also believed they missed the unsportsmanlike conduct call on Santonio Holmes for mimicing LeBron James' cloud of smoke routine. Which would have been a huge 15 yarder added on to the ensuing kickoff. I'm not saying that the refs stole the game from the Cards but I am saying the refs stole the opportunity from the Cards especially on the last play. But with that said I gained so much more respect for Kurt Warner who I already believed was a Hall of Famer now I think he is a lock, and for Larry Fitzgerald who's play in the postseason has catapulted him to the tops of everyones wide reciever list. So my hats off to them they tried to put the team on thier back but it just didn't work out like they hoped. until next year when the Bengals make thier run im done talking about pro football especially the cheating dirty low-blow steelers.