The Carolina Panthers, looking to bolster their underperforming special teams unit, are discussing a possible trade to acquire cornerback Marcus Hudson from the San Francisco 49ers
The 27-year-old North Carolina State alum racked up a career-high 24 special teams tackles with the 49ers in '09, second most on the team.
In his five years with the 49ers, Hudson has made 68 tackles and forced one fumble.
If acquired, the five-year veteran would join former Jets special-teamer Wallace Wright as part of the Panthers’ revamped special teams unit.
The Panthers began their special teams overhaul two months ago, when special teams coordinator Danny Crossman was replaced by strength and conditioning coach, Jeff Rodgers.
Under Crossman, the Panthers finished second-to-last in the NFL on kickoff returns in 2009 and have also not returned a kickoff for a touchdown since 2003.
As the Maryland Terrapins step on the court of Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina as the second seed of the ACC tournament, I cannot be prouder of this team.
Regardless of their outcome, I am happy that the team has had something to prove all season long, from eliminating the preseason prediction of finishing fifth in the ACC conference to beating both North Carolina and Duke in the regular season.
The basketball team's good fortunes culminated in a close win over rival Virginia in Charlottesville, clinching a tie for the ACC regular season title, and were lauded by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.
The association named Gary Williams ACC coach of the year, star guard Greivis Vasquez ACC player of the year, and freshman power forward/center Jordan Williams ACC rookie of the year.
This is the second time that Williams has been named coach of the year in the ACC, the first being in 2002, the year that he led the Terps to its first-ever national title in the NCAA tournament.
Williams, 65, a Maryland alumnus who played point guard in the 1960s, has coached at College Park, Maryland, since 1989, a few years after the death of Len Bias and NCAA sanctions thereafter.
Despite recent calls for his retirement after being unable to lead the school to another championship after 2002, this was definitely a year of redemption for him and his team, winners of seven straight games since February.
Williams has won over 400 games at Maryland, leading a team over the past two decades with relatively few nationally-acclaimed prep players.
Vasquez, a senior, was voted as the top player in the ACC on 39 of 53 ballots cast, with Duke's Jon Scheyer and Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney receiving 12 and 2 votes, respectively.
Vasquez, the four-year starter from Caracas, Venezuela, became the first foreign-born player to become ACC player of the year, as well as the sixth Maryland Terrapin to receive the award since Juan Dixon won it in 2002.
Vasquez is the first player in ACC history to record over 2,000 points, 700 assists and 600 rebounds. He also is the only player in NCAA Division I basketball to score 19 points and six assists per game.
Though both a showman and erratic at times, he has proven himself as a leader this season, after rescinding the idea of leaving school early to join the NBA last year, shooting and slashing at will to make himself and those around him significantly better, seemingly honing his skills for two big March tournaments.
Freshman Jordan Williams has helped Williams and Señor Vasquez, too, chipping in 9.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 50 percent in field goal percentage in 30 games, 28 as a starter.
That contribution led to the ACSMA's awarding Jordan Williams (no relation to Gary Williams) rookie of the year, edging out Georgia Tech's Derrick Favors.
So far, this has been a banner year for Maryland. Who knows if this will translate into many more victories in March and, eventually, in April.
With the possibilities being so endless, all we need to do at this point is just adhere to the school's motto: Fear the Turtle.
As of yet, Al Davis has been surprisingly quiet. To me it's been somewhat refreshing to see Davis and Co. not jump at the slightest opportunity to splash some cash.
BUT...as we all know, the Raiders struggled with the passing game last season (to put it lightly!) and we desperately need a weapon in the receiving game.
So this is the move Al Davis should pull the trigger on with the Raiders' first free agent acquisition of this offseason....the mercurial TERRELL OWENS.
With both Anquan Boldin and Antonio Bryant off the market, I see almost no reason why we aren't desperately trying to snap up T.O. before Mr. Ochocinco has his way and gets Cincinnati to offer him a contract.
The Raiders' pass offense last season was horrible as we all know. We came in 29th in passing yards/game (159.8) and 31st in points/game (12.3). The QB situation was far from ideal but let's focus on the WRs at the moment...
Let's first take a look at what the Oakland Raiders' WRs did in 09...
Johnnie Lee Higgins: three years experience, 19 receptions, 263 yards, 0 TDs
Chaz Schilens: two years experience, 29 receptions, 365 yards, 2 TDs
Todd Watkins: three years experience, 8 receptions, 90 yards, 0 TDs
Darrius Heyward Bey: one year experience, 9 receptions, 124 yards, 1 TD
Louis Murphy: one year experience, 34 receptions, 521 yards, 4 TDs
Nick Miller: one year experience, placed on IR without appearing in a game.
Javon Walker: .....
Along with these guys, the following WRs are on the Raiders roster:
Yamon Figurs: four years experience, 3 career receptions, 86 yards, 1 TD (more a return guy)
Paul Hubbard: one year experience, 0 career receptions.
Shaun Bodiford: two years experience, 1 career reception, 13 yards, 0 TDs.
If you're gonna tell me that list of WRs is gonna get the job done in 2010 then you gotta be crazy!
I've discussed the move for T.O. with my brother who, like myself, bleeds silver and black, and he hates the idea. And to be honest, I agreed with him until a few days ago. When I thought about the idea a bit more, however, I had a change of heart.
Here's why, and it's pretty simple...he PRODUCES.
T.O's '09 stats: 55 receptions, 829 yards, 5 TDs. What's more, he played 16 games and averaged 15.1 yards/catch.
Sure, his stats last season were by no means Earth-shattering, but they surpassed, by quite some margin, what any other Raider WR achieved. Despite having to deal with the poor state of affairs, football-wise, in Buffalo, T.O. produced and didn't run his mouth or complain—he did what he had to do.
For those that think this is just as bad an idea as the Javon Walker move was (thankfully that fiasco is now over), you are wrong!
Walker had numerous knee surgeries and was signed to the Raiders on a six year, $55 million contract (it pains me to write that!), having started only five games the previous season in Denver, catching 26 balls for 287 yards and zero TDs.
Owens, on the contrary, is a physical specimen and has only featured in less than 14 games ONCE in his 14 seasons in the NFL. Owens isn't going to be a down-the-field threat with his increasing years, but clearly feels he has something left in the tank, otherwise he wouldn't be looking for a job...
If Al Davis can sign T.O. for a reasonable sum of money, I see absolutely no reason why we should not make the move. Oakland needs to breathe some life into this offense, and the proven production of T.O. may be just the ingredient that this team needs to regain the swagger it's been missing since the days of Gannon and Tim Brown/Jerry Rice.
Let’s start this out with a hypothetical, shall we?
Imagine you are the coach of a hockey team that desperately needs to win in order to keep its playoff hopes alive. You’re coming off of an emotional win in an unfriendly environment against a division rival that you are chasing for playoff positioning and heading into another unfriendly environment against a division rival that has, on a whole, played terrible hockey for most of the season.
You come out in this game with an effort that could largely be described with many adjectives and superlatives that I am unable to use in my article, so we’ll just describe it as “uninspired.”
How do you respond?
Well, the players very well could have been physically and emotionally tired from the previous game. Let’s give them an optional practice.
Fair enough.
Then, you come out at home, against the same team that you shut out four nights earlier with an effort that could, again, be described as “uninspired.”
Well, we travelled the next day and the boys could have been tired from travel. Let’s give them another optional practice.
Alright. I suppose that rationale could be considered sound.
Then, the next night, you come out at home and offer up possibly the weakest performance of the season, placing just 11 shots on goal against a team that is just as many points out of a playoff spot as you are and laying an egg once more.
Maybe there’s a problem with your reasoning.
So how do you respond to your team’s worst effort of a season’s worth of inconsistent efforts and begin preparing for a game against last season’s conference champions?
With an optional practice, of course.
While my level of snark might be a little high right now, this is exactly what Minnesota Wild head coach Todd Richards saw fit to do yesterday following the Wild’s “uninspired” performance against the Florida Panthers.
Now, I’m rarely one to place any amount of blame on the coach. To me, unless the game is lost on a poor line change or because of a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty, at this point in the season it falls on the players to execute the game plan.
But to have another optional practice after the same effort was given following three previous optional practices is a grievous error by Richards, in my opinion.
For the past three games, the Wild’s forecheck has been non-existent, their breakouts sloppy and ineffective, and their defense lazy, at best. Three valiant efforts by Niklas Backstrom have been wasted by a team that just doesn’t feel the need to compete.
At some point, the coach needs to take control of the situation and hammer his point home. At some point, the coach needs to have one of those practices that has players scrapping in the corner, pushing each other off the puck, and flat out getting pissed at one another.
A relaxed practice run by the assistant coach just isn’t going to get it done.
Now I obviously don’t know the state of the team in the locker room. It could be that they’re simply tired and run down and that an aggressive, physical practice could do more harm than good.
But what I’ve seen over the past three games isn’t the same team that came out in Calgary and shut the Flames down. The team that I’ve seen over the past few games isn’t the team that professed their belief that they still have a shot at the playoffs.
The team I’ve seen over the past few games is a team that has, quite frankly, given up.
From the message that Richards is sending to the team over the past few days, it would appear that he has too.
Now before you get all up in arms on me here, this isn’t an indictment of Richards. He’s done a lot of good for the Wild this season and for the first time, fans of the team actually feel like the Wild don’t have to get an early lead and clamp down in order to win.
But, as Albert Einstein once said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Maybe it’s time for Richards to rethink his strategy and elicit a different result instead.
Just when we thought there couldn't be any more women come out and talk about having a sexual relationship with Tiger Woods, here comes one more, although Irene Folstrom just happens to be Tiger's college girlfriend.
Thursday night she'll be going on Inside Edition to do the one thing that all of Tiger's women have not done, defend him.
Who is this woman and what does she want? Click ahead to find out.
