Official NFL Thread

[Balta1701]

Al Davis is seemingly trying to force Lane Kiffin to resign without having to fire him. Yeah, this will end well.

[Brian]

sportsbybrooks.com

 

Romo Now Ready To Marry College Sweetheart?!

 

The NATIONAL ENQUIRER confirms today that Tony Romo has indeed split with Jessica Simpson, and is now planning to “propose” to a woman named Crystal Kasper.

 

Crystal Kasper Photos Tony Romo Girlfriend

 

Enquirer Source: “If you could see Tony’s phone bill from all the calls and text messages he sends Crystal, you’d be stunned. They couldn’t hook up much during the season. She was finishing her doctoral studies in Florida. But I know Tony flew Chicago where they spent time together.

 

“Tony’s family is happy because he’s dumped Jessica and the Hollywood scene. Tony’s folks thought Jessica was just using him for publicity since her career has been on a downslide.”

 

Ms. Kasper apparently dated Romo during his college days at Eastern Illinois. She also attended Indiana University. And a quick internet image search found photos of a “Crystal Kasper” who models Venus swimwear.

 

We’re not suggesting the photos are her, but it is an interesting coincidence.

 

Crystal Kasper Photos Tony Romo Girlfriend

 

More from the Enquirer: “Tony is now having a $1.4 million lakeside home built in Crystal’s hometown of Burlington, Wisconsin, and he hopes to share it with the twenty-five year old optometrist. There’s going to be a housewarming on Valentine’s Day, and Tony’s flying Crystal in. That’s when he’s set to propose.”

 

If you’re Kasper, and you observe Romo romping with Simpson all this time, wouldn’t you be a bit averse to next seeing Tony on bended knee in front of you? (Note to self: Become failed NFL playoff QB to rake in all the former college babies you bedded)

 

[SoxAce]

If true, thats an interesting twist.

[Balta1701]

Damn, wonder if I ever ran into that chick somewhere @ IU. If she's finishing up doctoral work, then we were basically there at the same time.

[knightni]

Boy you just can't but keep looking at her face

[Balta1701]

BS in Biology from IUN in 2004, according to online resources. From Hobart Indiana, would have come through there a year after I finished up @ portage. Edited January 26, 2008 by Balta1701

[greasywheels121]

Al Davis is seemingly trying to force Lane Kiffin to resign without having to fire him. Yeah, this will end well.

 

Al Davis:Raiders::Fidel Castro:Cuba

 

Al Davis, you are f***ing pathetic.

[A's fan]

Agreed Al still thinks hes the once great mavrick he was while in the 70's,80's but hes not anymore and ruins everything. The last time Al let a coach do his job was Jon Gruden and when it was time for gruden to get paid al screwed him over and shipped him off to tampa.

[Gregory Pratt]

I didn't know all this about Wes Welker. Great article, great story, great receiver.

 

She went to her bedroom and cried that night, not because of what the man said but because she knew the whole world was wrong. One hundred and five faxes, 104 "no"s, and it was about to end there, on a harsh winter day, when Wes Welker sat at a long table at the University of Tulsa. All he wanted was a scholarship.

 

If you sign Wes, his mama said, you won't be sorry. If you sign Wes, he'll change your program. The coach turned to Shelley Welker and sized up her 5-foot-9 son.

 

"Well, my mother would like me to be head coach of the Dallas Cowboys," Keith Burns told her. "But that isn't going to happen."

 

This is not a story about a little man playing on the world's biggest stage. That's too cliché. It is about doors. The glass front door at the Welker home is open late Wednesday afternoon, and Wes' chocolate Lab, Nash, is lounging in the backyard. It is not a coincidence that he named the dog after Suns point guard Steve Nash, who also happens to knock around in a 180-pound body.

 

It is not a surprise that everyone in the Welker home has a problem sitting still. Every five minutes or so, Leland, Wes' dad, stands up and asks his guests whether they need anything to drink. He's got Coke, Coke Zero, diet, milk, water. Are you sure you don't want to try the Coke Zero?

 

He finally sits back down and eyes a magazine on the table that has Welker's stubbled, GQ face on the cover. It's almost too East Coast for Wes.

 

"It's been hard for us to talk," Leland says in a soft Oklahoma twang. "I feel like we're bragging about our kids. I hope I'm not coming across as overbearing."

 

They'd prefer to be low-key because that's the way Welker has been throughout his career. It's impossible now. Nine years after college football shunned him, four years after the Chargers cut him, Welker is a mega star headed for the Super Bowl with New England.

 

He is a perfect fit, finally, in a world that measures itself with tapes, scales and 40-yard dashes. He is a big reason the Patriots are 18-0 and flirting with NFL history.

 

And none of it would have happened if Welker had accepted one no.

 

"We tried to teach that, to run after your dreams, don't let people tell you no," Shelley says.

 

"That's why it's such a great story. When one door would close, another one would open."

 

A car door opened, and Wes Welker eyeballed his first challenge. He was 2, maybe 3 days old and meeting his big brother, Lee, for the first time. Lee raised his 4-year-old fingers and pinched Wes in the nose. Hard.

 

"You can't do that!" Shelley said.

 

Lee was just tweaking him, which became sort of a childhood hobby. Big boy kicks little boy's butt in soccer. Little boy gets clobbered in football. Big boy's mom asks him to go easy.

 

"Are you kidding me?" Lee says. "I would never, never let him win. And he had to get used to it. Either he was going to have to quit playing the sport of football or soccer or whatever he happened to be playing that day, or he had to get better and tougher."

 

Lee was actually the tame one in the family. Wes was 2½ when he climbed his first tree and sat on the roof until Leland pulled in from work. Incredible balance, unlimited energy. "Hell on wheels from the get-go," Leland says.

 

When Welker reached high school at Heritage Hall, a private college prep school that oozes manners, he was both exasperating and entertaining. He'd play offense, defense and special teams in practice, then dive to the line on wind sprints because no sir, he was not going to be beat.

 

He'd vomit at least every other week during a game. Coach Rod Warner still has it on film. See Wes run 50 yards for a touchdown, charge back onto the field to kick the extra point, then turn and ask for a minute so he can throw up on the 10-yard line.

 

"It wasn't nerves," Warner says. "He just pushed his body so hard.

 

"The people in the stands would just start applauding. He gave it all every single drill, every sprint, every play."

 

He became a legend in the red Oklahoma clay. Before Welker, Heritage Hall had just one 10-win season in 30 years. It has averaged 11 wins a year since. Welker led them to a state championship as a junior and scored 24 points a game as a senior … in football.

 

And when he was named the state's Gatorade Player of the Year, his followers assumed he was headed for the big time. They didn't know prototypes. Being 5-9 was one thing. Being 5-9 with a 4.55 40-yard dash is enough to make you recruiting repellent.

 

The weekend before letter-of-intent day, Warner sent out 105 faxes. "This kid is still available," he said, "if anyone is interested."

 

He called Tommy McVay, an old friend who was working at Texas Tech.

 

"Tommy, he's the best player I've ever coached."

 

Everybody says that, McVay said.

 

But Tech coach Mike Leach, a spread-offense guru known around Big 12 circles as the mad scientist, tried to open his mind as he popped in the video.

 

"You go through the internal debate the whole time," Leach says. "Wow, he's just a little too small, ooh, he's a little too slow … oh, he plays both sides of the ball?"

 

Welker flew to Lubbock after signing day while Leland and Shelley followed by car. Something felt right, she'd say. Like Wes was meant to be there.

 

Within weeks after school started, the Tech coaches were calling Welker "The Natural."

 

"Everybody," Leach says, "seemed to feel like he could do anything."

 

As Welker's numbers exploded and the legend grew, people outside of Lubbock, Texas, wanted to know more about his will. He didn't get his tenacity as the son of an oil-rig worker whose family ate when it could. His dad was an engineer for Southwestern Bell.

 

He never was one for much introspection. Wasn't much time for it. But he could flip from game-day serious to prankster, leaving fake dog poo at shopping malls just to watch people laugh.

 

"I remember when they brought him in, he was 5-7 and very unassuming," says former Red Raiders quarterback Kliff Kingsbury. "I thought he looked like a frat guy. We're offering this kid a scholarship? Definitely on looks, he didn't pass the test. But on the field, he was an unbelievable kid."

 

Within a few months, Welker was in the starting lineup as a true freshman. In four years, he caught 259 passes for 3,019 yards and 21 touchdowns. His eight career punt-return touchdowns still tie an NCAA record. He played most of his senior year with turf toe, an injury so painful Welker hobbled around campus in a protective boot on the off days.

 

Nobody, it seemed, could get a hard shot on him. Part of it had to do with his size and a low center of gravity. Much of it had to do with his shiftiness. Although Leach considers hailing the merits of soccer as sacrilege, he figures Welker got his coordination, horizontal movement and vision from the round version of football.

 

Welker figured heavily into every opponents' scouting report, and when he graduated from Texas Tech in 3½ years with a business degree, he was certain he was headed to the NFL.

 

The NFL combine came, and Welker wasn't invited. In hindsight, his supporters say, maybe that was better. They couldn't put a tape and a stopwatch to him. Forty freaking yard dashes? In football, who runs in a straight line, anyway?

 

But the Welkers held two days of draft parties in 2004, and the house grew silent when the final pick was named.

 

If this doesn't work out, Warner told him, there are other …

 

"Don't even go there, Coach," Welker told Warner. "I'm going to make it in the NFL. There's no other option."

 

The Chargers kept him through training camp, and Welker thought that meant he was safe. They cut him after the first game. One friend says Welker is "massively pissed off" at San Diego to this day, although Welker has never publicly suggested that.

 

He quickly moved on to Miami, and a month later, Welker became just the second player in NFL history to return a kickoff and a punt, kick a field goal and an extra point, and make a tackle in one game. He did it against the Patriots and a coach who just happens to love that kind of throwback versatility. The Patriots churned on; the Dolphins continued their stumble.

 

Few people noticed that Welker was evolving into a go-to receiver. He led the Dolphins with 67 catches in 2006. The Super Bowl was held in Miami a few months later, and Warner went to South Beach that week to hang with Welker.

 

They sat at breakfast, the Monday after the Colts beat Chicago, and Welker asked whether his coach ever wanted to go to another Super Bowl.

 

"Wes, the next Super Bowl I'll go to is the one you're playing in," Warner said.

 

That might be a while in Miami, Welker said.

 

Two months later, Warner's cell phone rang at 1 a.m. Welker had just been traded to the Patriots.

 

"You know that conversation we had at the Super Bowl?" Welker asked Warner.

 

"Did you ever think it might be this year?"

 

He is so perfect here, in the land of no-nonsense. Men with stern faces walk around with purpose, as if they're headed to the bank to open an IRA … minutes after they've won a playoff game. Welker quickly dresses after New England beats San Diego, the team that never gave him a chance, and heads for the door without talking to the media.

 

By Week 6, when the Patriots prepared for a superhyped game against Dallas, it was obvious that Welker, 26, was immersed in his surroundings. He'd gotten a text message from his brother, Lee. Big game coming up, huh? Wes texted back: They're all big.

 

Wes, the family joked, was turning into Bill Belichick.

 

A sampling of some recent Welker "sound bites":

 

When you did you feel you belonged in the NFL, Wes?

 

"I guess once I made the team."

 

What do you say about the Giants calling you guys a dirty team?

 

"It's their opinion about it, and we can only control what we can control."

 

But it's not so odd that an undersized frat boy from Oklahoma and a man who is viewed as one of the stuffiest coaches in the NFL could be kindred spirits. Belichick wants a team full of role players. Welker fought half his life just for a role.

 

And while defenses keyed on stopping Randy Moss, the 6-foot-4 superstar receiver whose offseason signing overshadowed all other arrivals, Welker had a franchise-record 112 catches.

 

"Perfect place, the perfect situation for him," says veteran running back Kevin Faulk. "I told him when he first got here that he couldn't have come to an offense that was better for him, that fits his ability and what he does as a receiver."

 

A whiff of hamburger grease fills the aisles at the Nichols Hills pharmacy just before closing time, and Jay Black is about to cut the lights. His dad started the business in 1963, and it seems time, in this patch of a strip mall, has frozen there. Past the miniature metal stools and the retro napkin holders is a soda fountain and a rack of Groucho Marx DVDs for $2.99.

 

Welker used to ride his bike here as a kid, load up on hamburgers and chili, and charge the food to his parents. All the little kids did it. When big Wes comes back now, he'll order his $3.50 hamburger and have the same ladies behind the same counter bill it to his dad. The Welkers get a kick out of that.

 

"It wasn't really a big deal when he was coming in here," Black says. "We knew he was a good ballplayer. But he didn't necessarily stick out over the rest of the kids."

 

In this suddenly perfect world, he doesn't need to. They pray for him a few blocks up the road, in the Welker home, that he'll be safe among 300-pounders and 6-foot-3 burners who belong in the league.

 

Here, they always believed Wes belonged, too.

 

"It was all part of God's plan, and we know that," Shelley says. "It worked out just like it was supposed to."

Edited January 28, 2008 by Gregory Pratt

[Balta1701]

If you're going to post long articles from someone else's site, please remember to include the link to the article in question.

[Gregory Pratt]

Right, sorry; please edit the link into the beginning of my post, too.

[knightni]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs07/n...tory?id=3219550

 

Patriots good fortunes continue.

[Gregory Pratt]

"You know what, Green Bay, everyone got sick after that," Strahan said. "I'm still, you can tell by my voice, I'm still not right since that.

 

So that's why he sounds like a twelve year old girl?

[Gregory Pratt]

Plaxico Burress predicted a 23-17 Giants win and in Anthony Smith-fashion, he guaranteed it, too. "You have to believe in your team," said Burress.

 

As he defended his bold choice of words, Burress only had to look some 40 feet to his left to see the grim expression of coach Tom Coughlin, who wasn't happy to hear about the prediction.

 

"I was not aware of that," said Coughlin, who shook his head. "We've had a good theme all year and it hasn't been that. We do our talking on the field."

 

When a reporter heard David Diehl say there would "be a different outcome" to this Patriots-Giants game than there was Dec. 29 [New England won, 38-35], the offensive lineman wouldn't follow Burress' lead.

 

"I'm not guaranteeing anything," said Diehl. "I'm only saying I believe in my team."

[Milkman delivers]

There is always some idiot on the opposing team to say this. Is it that hard to shut your mouth for a week (or two, in this case)?

[witesoxfan]

Plex is gonna get jacked up

[Balta1701]

Hot couple Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo thrilled regulars at tribute group Metal Skool's weekly showcase in Hollywood on Monday night with a rocking duet. (Video)

 

The good-looking pair sang Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," backed by the band at the Key Club.

 

Romo initially refused to join his pop star girlfriend onstage, but reluctantly agreed to sing with her when fans started chanting out his name.

Video @ TMZ.

 

Dude...you lost. Stop stealing our song. We won, you lost, it's our song.

[greasywheels121]

He did this last year too w/ Mr. Belding.

[Gregory Pratt]

I see the winning tradition is alive and well in Dallas.

[Balta1701]

About 3 months too late, Senator Specter is starting to sniff around and ask why the NFL rapidly destroyed all of the tapes and evidence as to exactly what the Pats were up to with the spying on the Jets.

[Balta1701]

This is the kind of article that could make the Patriots whole house of cards come down if someone (Specter?) pushes hard enough on it. ESPN interviews the guy who was doing the video-tape work for the Pats before about 2003. He doesn't come out and say anything specific, but he sure as hell hints that he knows stuff that people in the Pats organization wouldn't want the rest of us to know about.

[Soxbadger]

Goodell is such an idiot. Specter may be grandstanding, but still Goodell's story is puzzeling. He said he destroyed the tapes so that if any other evidence surfaced hed know that the Pats were lieing.

 

The problem is this:

 

Goodell is the only one who saw the tapes.

 

If any evidence comes out, Goodell is the only person who can say whether or not this is "new" or "old" evidence.

 

If he really wanted to catch the Pats lieing, he would have stored all of the evidence, so he could compare any "new" evidence to that they already have.

[Jimbo's Drinker]

Goodell is such an idiot. Specter may be grandstanding, but still Goodell's story is puzzeling. He said he destroyed the tapes so that if any other evidence surfaced hed know that the Pats were lieing.

 

The problem is this:

 

Goodell is the only one who saw the tapes.

 

If any evidence comes out, Goodell is the only person who can say whether or not this is "new" or "old" evidence.

 

If he really wanted to catch the Pats lieing, he would have stored all of the evidence, so he could compare any "new" evidence to that they already have.

 

 

There is a definitely a 'catch' with the Pats, I can't wait to see what they really did.

[Metz]

ahh wrong place

Edited February 3, 2008 by JFields27

[Kyyle23]

Busted selling counterfeit Superbowl tickets

 

I like this part the best:

 

Clark said the arrest led them to two rooms and a car at a nearby Motel 6, where they found dozens of forged Super Bowl tickets and marijuana, and arrested seven more suspects.

 

One suspect was trying to eat five forged tickets when police found him, Clark said.