FanHouse

Sorting the Sunday Pile looks back at the NFL weekend that was. It's also an unofficial Mittens blog.

Two months ago, the plan was to bring Joe Flacco along slowly; let him watch-by-learning this season -- or at least until head coach John Harbaugh couldn't stomach the sight of another Kyle Boller spaz-tastic five-step drop that inevitably results in a pick-six. And then, if all goes well, give Flacco the chance to ease into the role in 2009. Sort of like the Bengals did with Carson Palmer in 2004, or the Chargers and Philip Rivers in 2006.

But things didn't work out that way: Boller suffered a season-ending-before-it-started shoulder injury, and two games into the preseason, Troy Smith contracted a virus that left him 20 pounds lighter and so weak he couldn't even practice.

Flacco didn't have a choice -- he was the starter. And while most people who know about such things agreed that Flacco was out of his depth -- I mean, he couldn't make it at the University of Pittsburgh (Tyler Palko, baby!) and transferred to University of Delaware to get on the field. Sure, a Division I-AA power, but not exactly an NFL resume builder. Plus, Flacco didn't even throw a football through the uprights from midfield on one knee during his pre-draft workout.

The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday, and that has Redskins owner Dan Snyder very pumped up in this video:

For the first couple of seconds of the video, you hear someone yelling, "Whoo! Yeah! 4-1!" and you assume it's a fan or a player or something. And then the source of the hooting and hollering comes through the door, and it's Snyder himself.

Via PFT.

Every Monday morning The Ice Sheet will take a close look at everything that's happened in the NHL since Friday night at 5:00 p.m. To read them all, click here.

On Saturday morning when I passed along the news that Petr Prucha was actually going to get into the lineup for Saturday's Rangers-Lightning tilt in Prague, I also made a point of linking to a rather angry Larry Brooks column where the Slap Shot columnist let loose with every little complaint he had about the way the Rangers were handling their pre-season. After giving it a read, you could be forgiven for thinking the team was in a bit of disarray:

It's all about Renney coaching a team without Jagr and Shanahan to lean on, and it's all about this group filling the huge voids created with the decision to dispose of the team's post-lockout identity as if it were toxic.

It's all about one of the most vanilla Rangers teams in memory bonding in order to form a unit greater than the sum of its underwhelming parts.

Well, here we are a little less than 48 hours later, and all is forgotten in the wake of a pair of 2-1 victories over the revamped Lightning. Rangers newcomers Markus Naslund and Wade Redden combined for two goals and two assists over the weekend, as the New Yorkers pretty easily dominated the run of play as the Lightning played against type. While new owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie spent most of the Summer stacking the team with loads of new offensive weapons, it was their goalies, Mike Smith and Olie Kolzig, who kept things close, stopping 76 of 80 shots over the course of two games.

Much has been made about the possibility of LeBron James bolting Cleveland for the brighter lights and bigger exposure that the New Jersey Nets would have to offer in 2010. All the signs are there, including the team moving to Brooklyn right around the same time (give or take a year), which would place King James in prime position to play in the biggest city in the country, in a brand new arena, and for partial Nets' owner and bestest buddy Jay-Z. The gossip is rampant for good reason. But if LeBron himself is to be believed, at least by virtue of his comments here when he was finished urging the fine people of Ohio to register to vote, he loves Cleveland, and has no plans to go elsewhere.



Now, was that just a throw-away line at the end of a little pep talk at a political rally, or was there some substance behind it? Could be a little of both. I'm sure LeBron does love Ohio and, maybe right now, has no plans to go elsewhere. But if the fortunes of the Cavs over the next few years don't change, the attraction of playing in NYC is going to be extremely difficult to pass up.

Hi. My name is Steph. I may be the only Houston Texan fan you know. Right now, I don't really want to write any sort of a recap of the Texans' heartbreaking and inexplicable loss to the Colts. This was the 100th game of the Texans' existence, and I believe it was the absolute worst loss, which is saying something given how many ways this team has lost over the years or even in the last month.

I was at the game, and well, I am experiencing significant post-traumatic stress. So instead of reliving it any more, I direct you to MDS's post on the subject and invite you to look at my pictorial summary of the game....

The conventional wisdom right now is that when the Brewers traded for CC Sabathia this June, they loaded up for a one year run at the playoffs. Both CC and Ben Sheets will be free agents after the World Series ends and losing those two from a rotation that finished the season up so poorly seems like an awfully daunting task. That's just a cursory look at things, though. A deeper look reveals something entirely different.

First off, all indications are that the Brewers will make a run at CC. They have some budget room with Sheets, Eric Gagne, and maybe Mike Cameron coming off of the books. Even if they can't keep pace with the Sabathia bidding (which seems likely), they should have in-house replacements in Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra. Gallardo has all the makings of a true future ace and looked fairly strong in his return from a torn ACL late in the season. Parra had a great two-month stretch from May through July this year and has nice minor league numbers. They're not Sheets and Sabathia yet, but most teams would kill to have two young pitchers like Gallardo and Parra.

Beyond that, the key components of their lineup will all be back next year and there's no reason to think that any of them are going to suffer any kind of appreciable drop in production. In fact, guys like Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, and Corey Hart are all young enough that they should still be improving. They'll have five first round picks next year after Sheets and Sabathia sign elsewhere, and they should have a nice chunk of change to spend on free agents until Mat Gamel and Jeremy Jeffress are ready to help the big club. Don't count the Brewers out next year, just because Sheets and Sabathia are leaving at the talking heads are telling you to.

NASCAR fans got a pretty doggone good show Sunday afternoon at Talladega -- especially if you're a fan of the edge-of-your-seat-for-500-miles action.

But what the fans at the track and the ones at home left with was a big, big question.

When in the world is NASCAR going to find a consistent, plausible rule book?

I'll state it bluntly: Dale Earnhardt Inc.'s rookie driver Regan Smith got screwed on the final lap of the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway after NASCAR handed Tony Stewart the win -- his first of 2008. Smith, they said, broke the out-of-bounds rule by making a pass of Stewart under the yellow line just before the start/finish line.

Smith crossed the start/finish first and had seemingly handed Stewart a seventh-career 2nd-place finish at the Alabama track.

Smith deserved to be doing burnouts.

He deserved to be celebrating an improbable win in victory lane.

And, most of all, he did not deserve getting penalized for something a well-known driver got away with en route to a victory at the same track in 2003.

His name? Dale Earnhardt Jr.

It was a pretty great day for the city of Philadelphia. Unfortunately, none of that greatness can be attributed to its football team. For the second straight week, the Eagles offense failed to convert on short yardage plays near the goal line and it cost them the game. The Washington Redskins ran all over the Eagles and simply played like the better team today.

During his post game press conference, Donovan McNabb said that he didn't feel like the Redskins are a better team than his Eagles. Comcast analyst and serious football guru, Ray Didinger, didn't exactly agree. To paraphrase Mr Diddy, "Who went down to Dallas and came away with a win? Not you. Who came into the Linc and beat you on your home field? Who made the playoffs last season? Not you. Who has won four straight games? Not you."

Yeah, things aren't going so well for the Eagles.

Anyone who thought the fate of EliteXC on network television was tied to the fortunes of Kimbo Slice is "100 percent misinformed," a CBS executive told me today.

CBS Senior Executive VP for Primetime Kelly Kahl said that despite the dramatic knockout of Kimbo at the hands of Seth Petruzelli, the network has every intention of putting mixed martial arts on its airwaves again.

"We have a four-fight contract," Kahl said. "We certainly plan on coming back with fight No. 4."

I asked Kahl for his immediate reaction when he saw Kimbo go down.

"I think we all said, 'Holy,'" Kahl said, "and then you could insert a four-letter word."