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Bill Belichick the coach of the New England Patriots finally ended his silence on the twin taping controversies that affected his team and denied that he had told anyone to tape the St. Louis Rams’ walkthrough before the XXXVIst Super Bowl and apologized for all the attention which had been generated by Spygate.  He also said he couldn’t pick Matt Walsh out of a lineup and said that he had never seen another team’s practice filming film before playing that team and further added that the Patriots do not film their own practice sessions.  Walsh is the person who is reportedly taped the practice session and also happens to be a former employee of the Patriots.

Scott Pioli, the vice president of player personnel for the Patriots also told the Boston Globe that Walsh was fired in early 2003 because he recorded a conversation between himself and Pioli without the latter’s knowledge.

Walsh’s attorney, Michael Levy on the other hand said that Pioli’s story is a complete fabrication and an attempt to smear Walsh’s character.  Levy has also said that Walsh is in possession of certain tapes and is willing to turn them over if the NFL guarantees that he will be protected from lawsuits or any other legal action. Commissioner Roger Goodell said that offered Walsh a deal that required him to tell the truth and return anything that he got by methods that were not proper in return for indemnity but Walsh was unwilling.

Belichick apologized saying that he had misinterpreted the rule as prohibiting taping which could be used during the same game. He apologized for the trouble caused and for not contacting the league and clarifying the practice with them.

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The Washington Redskins have been making their coaching staff which is headed by Jim Zorn stronger with a few more additions.  Sherman Smith who makes the move from the Tennessee Titans has been hired as offensive coordinator for the Redskins.  Smith had been the running backs coach to the Titans since 1995 and had also been assistant coach for the last two seasons.  Smith said that the make reason behind making the move was the opportunity to be reunited with Zorn. Zorn and Smith had played together for the Seattle Seahawks in the late 70s and the early 80s.

Smith had received the offer when he visited Washington on Tuesday and then went back to Tennessee to consider his options. He will join the Redskins at the NFL combine next week.

Stump Mitchell is the other addition to the new coaching staff.  He follows Jim Zorn from the Seahawks where he has been running back coach since 1999 and has worked with Zorn since 2001 with the Seahawks.  He will also have the title of assistant head coach at the Redskins.

Zorn expressed happiness at his inclusion and said that he was aware of his teaching methods and believed him to be an excellent teacher.  The deal with Mitchell took place before Smith joined the Redskins and together they complete a very solid looking coaching staff.

After talks with many coaches which didn’t quite reach anywhere, the Redskins were still looking a week ago when Steve Spagnuolo of the New York Giants withdrew from the race for coach. After many offers to many top names in the business, it appears that the Redskins have finally put together a combination which knows each other and has respect for each other’s game and methods.

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Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings was named the 2007 Diet Pepsi NFL Rookie of the year today. In the 2007 season Peterson broke every Viking rookie rushing record and even set the NFL record for rushing yards in a game with 296 in the game against San Diego on the 4^th of November.

He was at the top of the NFC and second in the NFL in rushing yards with a total of 1,341 yards which is part of a total which also happens to be the second highest Vikings yards in a season.

He helped the Vikings along to scoring a new team record for rushing yards in a season with 2,634 yards and together with Chester Taylor who had 844 yards set a new team record for rushing yards by a tandem with 2,185.

He also had 2,021 combined net yards which ranks him second in Vikings history after Herschel Walker who set the record with 2,051 in 1990.

This year nearly 440,00 votes were polled for the Rookie of the Year Award between the 3^rd of January and the 28^th and this overtook last year’s total of 363,500. Peterson was one of the five finalists who were short listed to receive this award, the others being Dwayne Bowe of the Kansas City Chiefs, running back Marshawn Lycnh of the Buffalo Bills, offensive tackle Joe Thomas of the Cleveland Browns and linebacker Partick Willis of the San Francisco 49ers.

Each of the finalists were chosen for their outstanding performances through the year and the winner was selected through public voting as is the custom. This is the sixth time Pepsi is sponsoring the NFL Rookie of the year award and the 3^rd time running Diet Pepsi will present the award to the winner.

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One’s loss is another’s gain. The Dallas Cowboys will now benefit from the Cleveland Browns’ loss. Todd Grantham who was fired unexpectedly earlier this month by the Browns has now found work with the Dallas Cowboys. He will now fill the post of defensive coordinator in the Cowboys camp.

He has been coaching NFL teams for nine seasons and has been with the Cleveland Browns for the last 3 years under Romeo Crennel.  He is also known to be comfortable with the 3-4 line up that Wade Phillips the Cowboys coach uses as it is the one used by Crennel and also the Texas Rangers.

Phillips said that it was important that Grantham was familiar with the strategies employed by the Cowboys but it was the fact that he had so much experience that worked in his favor.

Though the Browns did not have a very good defense record, Grantham’s dismissal still came as a surprise to most. Under him the Browns’ defense record was 30^th in total yards in 2007, 27^th in rushing defense, 26^th in sacks, 24^thin passing defense, 21^st in scoring defense and 14^th in interceptions. But towards the end of the season the Browns’ defense in games had improved noticeably.

He takes the place of Kacy Rodgers who was one of the 4 Cowboy coaches along with Paul Pasqualoni, Todd Bowles and Tony Sparano who left in a mass move to the Miami Dolphins. Though this position has been filled, the Cowboys are still looking for a secondary coach and a line backers coach.

What is left to be seen is whether Grantham is able to strengthen the Cowboys’ defense or whether his fate this time around too will be much the same as with the Browns.

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The New York Giants trampled all over the Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in the ninth-straight win. This is the first time the Giants have beat the Cowboys in three games this season. The Giants who began the season 0-2 are now one win away from glory. They will next face the Packers in the NFC Championship game at Green Bay on Sunday.

The Giants owe a bit of their victory to Eli Manning who turned in another trademark efficient performance with two touchdown passes and one amazing 46 second touchdown drive just before half time. On the same day however Eli’s older brother Peyton who plays for the Colts ended his season as the Colts were eliminated from the playoffs.

The Giants’ defense also worked well this game and Tony Romo and Terrell Owens didn’t trouble the Giants very much all through the game. Even after the Cowboys got the ball with seven minutes left in the game they couldn’t capitalize much. The two penalties by the Cowboys helped no doubt and then Romo underthrew Owens and the Giants were sniffing victory.

This is the first time since 2000 that the Giants have been in an NFC Championship Game. The Cowboys were absolutely certain of their win that their owner gave each player 2 tickets for their family and friends for the final. The performance showed the team as a strong cohesive unit and they were just too good for the Cowboys on the day.

Manning said that the team was excited about the opportunity they have got and that they would give it all they had to keep it going as long as they could. With the defense in place and Manning coming up with some really special performances in the past few weeks, the Giants look like they could give anyone a run for their money.

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Eli Manning’s first career playoff will ring warning bells in the Dallas Cowboys camp. During the 24-14 wild card win over the Buccaneers, the Buccaneers’ defense was more bothered about Brandon Jacobs. This mistake was fatal to their chances in the game and Manning made them pay dearly. Jacobs struggles but Manning made merry.

He played an excellent, mistake-free game in his usual fashion against the team that is acknowledged to have the best passing defense and completed 20 of his 27 passes with two touchdowns and no interceptions, with a completion rate of 74.1%, the highest in his career.

This feat came in a playoff game where people had doubts about Manning’s match winning ability and this made it even more important for the team as well as Manning’s career. The Giants (16-11) will now face the Dallas Cowboys (13-3) on Sunday. The Giants in two attempts have been unsuccessful at beating the Cowboys this season. 

In those two games though Manning was at his best. He completed 68% of his passes with five touchdowns and three interceptions. He however saw a slump in his game until the end of 2007 when he came up with a great performance against the Patriots with four touchdowns.

Manning went about the game in his usual efficient and clinical manner and in spite of Jacobs not performing he got them that extremely important victory that still keeps them in running for the Championship. The team will be hoping that he keeps it up for Sunday’s big game against the Dallas Cowboys who have been superb this season.  The Giants’ defense has been a bit of a problem for the Giants but the team is confident that they will be able to overcome the difficulties and make their way into the finals of the Championship.  

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Tom Brady has been earning accolades from everyone this season and has now run away with the Associated Press NFL MVP award.  The record setting quarterback who plays for the New England Patriots got all but one of the votes in the voting process.  The Patriots have had the longest unbeaten season since Miami won 14-0. They have gone up 16-0. Brady has been playing for 8 years and has created a new record by throwing 50 touchdowns this season.

Though Brady has still not commented on receiving the award, there is jubilation in the Patriots’ locker room and for most people the award hasn’t come as a surprise. They instead feel that it has come a little late. The coach, owner and other players have always felt that Brady was the most valuable player and that it is surprising that he has been given the award so late. His efforts and motivation of the team has been well appreciated by all the members.

Brady is the first person to be selected as MVP from the Patriots. He got 49 out of the 50 votes cast by media persons who cover NFL games. He has scored at least 3 touchdowns in every game this season with the exception of one game against the Jets, which the Patriots won anyhow.  But it is not the statistics that made Tom Brady so popular. It is the fact that he is a great leader, an excellent motivator who gets the entire team moving. He has been known to give all to the game and shares a great equation with all the team members. There is a feeling of mutual respect which even the younger player get from him. So may the machine that is Tom Brady never stop and continue to want more for the rest of his playing days.

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Since the 80s with their action filled and power packed football the Dallas Cowboys have been quite a hit with football fans all over the country.

The New England Patriots are all out to set history of a new kind.  If they beat the New York Giants in New York they will have completed the perfect season which is something even the legendary Dallas Cowboys couldn’t.  In 1972 the Miami Dolphins became the only team in history (even till today) to win a perfect season and that was when the NFL has 14 games instead of 16 as is the practice today.

Even though winning this next game does not guarantee the Patriots a championship but it will put them a notch above the winners if it happens to be someone else.  Quarterback Tom Brady said that the team has been training very hard for the past few months and it would be a special achievement since no other team has been in such a position and that 16-0 was a goal that they had set for themselves. The team has a blend of players with Brady with his clear past record and excellent season with 48 touchdown passes behind him while it also has controversial and brilliant players like Randy Moss. Coach Bill Belichick also declared that this was the goal he also had in mind.

With an opportunity to make history and be the first to do this task, the New England Patriots will be gearing up for the match in order to achieve that which no team in history has achieved. There are a lot of things including records which are at stake and the Patriots will do their absolute best to achieve a feat that has never happened and which shall catapult them to such fame and an entirely new standing among the people.

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For the vast majority of this blog, I will be discussing the NFL and the NFL alone. While the college game is fascinating on its own merits, it has nowhere near the level of talent or intrigue as professional football does for me. With that said, one of the pressing issues this season has been the method used to rank teams.

As most NCAA football fans know, the championship system works by ranking teams throughout the season. Before each season begins, the NCAA ranks systems based on their previous year’s results and newly acquired talent. As the season continues, teams move up or down based on losses and wins. And at the end of the year, the two top teams get a chance to play for the top title in college football.

The problem? This design favors weak conferences over good ones. Before last Saturday, Ohio State had a seemingly easy path to a national championship despite scheduling no hard out-of-conference teams and playing in the abysmal Big Ten. Meanwhile teams like LSU and Oregon suffered because they play in conferences where tough match-ups are the norm, not the rarity.

Even though Ohio State’s loss to Illinois has put the entire system back where it should be, the problem still exists. One loss should not be the difference between two equally good teams when the teams play different levels of talent. Strength of schedule should be a bigger factor then it currently is.

But this is not an easy problem to fix. There is no way that every team can play equal talent, it just can’t happen. And it isn’t fair to penalize a team for factors it can’t control like which conference it plays in. The only real answer would be to open up a playoff system for the championship. If four or more teams were allowed to vie for the title, there will be less of a chance of deserving teams being left out.

Of course, a playoff system simply is not ideal for the NCAA right now because of TV contracts and other reasons. So for now, we must just suffer through the possibility of deserving teams having no shot at a championship.

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