Out of Bounds: Where the Wild Things Are, Week in Review in Sports

Posted On: January 9, 2010
Posted By: therowdyone
Comments: 3

By Hot Rod! The Rowdy One

What’s poppin citizens of Planet Ill? We’re back for another edition of Out of Bounds. Well, we’ve reached the end of our 2009-10 NFL regular season and your boy The Rowdy One didn’t do too bad with the picks this year.

According to my ESPN Pigskin Challenge, your boy called 87% of this year’s games correctly. I’ve had better years. However, in my defense, if that means anything, I did take a few chances with some of my picks. I guess you can say that I “wild out” a lil this year.

Speaking of “wild” out, this weekend is the start of the 2009-10 NFL post season. It’s time for teams who made the playoffs to toughen up and get ready to make their case for a trip to Super Bowl XLIV. We’re off on the road to South Florida.

It’s Wild Card Weekend folks and we have seen some wild things go down during Wild Card Weekend in the past:

Before we look at the picks for the 1^st round of the NFL Playoffs, let’s look at some of the “wild” news that went down this past week.

Every year when the NFL regular season ends on Sunday, the following Monday is know as “Black Monday”. They call it “Black Monday” because that’s usually the day when NFL head coaches who are on the chopping block get fired. Well this past Monday, one of the NFL’s worst kept rumors of the 2009 season was confirmed when the Washington Redskins fired Jim Zorn and hired former Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan as the new head coach of the ‘Skins.

As always, this is another attempt for ‘Skins owner Daniel Snyder to better his team with another coaching change and probably more over spending during the off season on free agents. Now, I have no problem with Shanahan as the new head coach of the ‘Skins. He was a winner in Denver with two Super Bowl Championships. Then again, he had John Elway as his quarterback. However, Shanahan has the reputation for improving the skills of quarterbacks on his team and with the system he uses, he can make running backs look like Emmitt Smith or Barry Sanders. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the ‘Skins during the off season. Will this be another year that the ‘Skins are “paper champs” or have they finally found the formula to turn thing things around and make themselves real champs? We’ll have to wait and see.

Speaking of Emmitt Smith, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced their final list of nominees for the 2010 enshrinement ceremony. Those nominees are:

Tim Brown – Wide Receiver/Kick Returner – 1988-2003 Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, 2004 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Cris Carter – Wide Receiver – 1987-89 Philadelphia Eagles, 1990-2001 Minnesota Vikings, 2002 Miami Dolphins
Don Coryell – Coach – 1973-77 St. Louis Cardinals, 1978-1986 San Diego Chargers
Roger Craig – Running Back – 1983-1990 San Francisco 49ers, 1991 Los Angeles Raiders, 1992-93 Minnesota Vikings
Dermonti Dawson – Center – 1988-2000 Pittsburgh Steelers
Richard Dent – Defensive End – 1983-1993, 1995 Chicago Bears, 1994 San Francisco 49ers, 1996 Indianapolis Colts, 1997 Philadelphia Eagles
Russ Grimm – Guard – 1981-1991 Washington Redskins
Charles Haley – Defensive End/Linebacker – 1986-1991, 1999 San Francisco 49ers, 1992-96 Dallas Cowboys
Rickey Jackson – Linebacker – 1981-1993 New Orleans Saints, 1994-95 San Francisco 49ers
Cortez Kennedy – Defensive Tackle – 1990-2000 Seattle Seahawks
Dick LeBeau* – Cornerback – 1959-1972 Detroit Lions
Floyd Little* – Running Back – 1967-1975 Denver Broncos
John Randle – Defensive Tackle – 1990-2000 Minnesota Vikings, 2001-03 Seattle Seahawks
Andre Reed – Wide Receiver – 1985-1999 Buffalo Bills, 2000 Washington Redskins
Jerry Rice – Wide Receiver – 1985-2000 San Francisco 49ers, 2001-04 Oakland Raiders, 2004 Seattle Seahawks
Shannon Sharpe – Tight End – 1990-99, 2002-03 Denver Broncos, 2000-01 Baltimore Ravens
Emmitt Smith – Running Back – 1990-2002 Dallas Cowboys, 2003-04 Arizona Cardinals

That’s a tough list of people to choose from. Smith and Rice are pretty much locks for the Hall of Fame. After the two of them, it’s anyone’s guess.

Also, we saw the end of the 2009-10 College Football Season with the Alabama Crimson Tide defeating the Texas Longhorns in the BCS Championship game on Thursday night.

This was the 8^th National Championship for the Alabama and the 2^nd National Championship for head coach Nick Saban, who previously won when he was the head coach at LSU in 2003.

Also, Tide running back and Heisman Trophy winner, Mark Ingram, is the first player to win a National Championship and Heisman Trophy in the same year since Arizona Cardinals back-up QB and former USC star QB, Matt Leinart did it back in 2007. Let’s just hope that when it’s time for Ingram to make the jump to the NFL, his career doesn’t suffer the same sugar to s**t fate of Leinart’s.

While we’re on the topic of USC, it looks as though Pete Carroll is back in the NFL. On Friday, January 8, 2010, the Seattle Seahawks fired Jim Mora after one year as head coach. Mora finished his 1^st season as head coach of the Seahawks with a 5-11 record.

Now, sources close to the situation have confirmed that Carroll and the Seahawks have agreed in principle on a contract.

The last time Carroll coached in the NFL was in 1994 when he coached the New York Jets to a 6-10 record. Is this right time for Carroll to leave? I guess so. Carroll has always said that if he left USC, it has to be a situation similar to the control he has had during his time at USC. It looks like the Seahawks are willing to give that control. If this falls through and he’s back in the NFL, I wish him all the luck.

A congrats goes out to Indianapolis Colts QB Peyton Manning on winning a record setting 4^th NFL MVP award. There was no denying the Manning was the true MVP of the league this year.

Finally, as some of you may have already read, my man A Negro and a Keyboard spoke on the Gilbert Arenas situation. Therefore, I won’t go into it too tough. However, it would be remissive of me if I don’t hand him my Moron of the Week award. After the way he handled the situation, he may have to receive the award for not just the week, but for the month and the year. Athletes out there, ya’ll better smarten up.

Whew, I told yall it’s been a wild week. In addition, I didn’t even get a chance to touch on the Mayweather/Pacquiao situation. We’ll get to that in another post. For now, now that I’ve got that off of my chest, here are my picks for Wild Card Weekend:

Saturday, 1/09/2010, 4:30pm (NBC)
9-7 @ 10-6
2009 Match-up: Week 17: 0, 37
My Pick: