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Sharpe Falls Short In Bid For Hall Of Fame

For the second year in a row, former Baltimore Raven and Denver Bronco tight end Shannon Sharpe was denied election into Pro Football’s Hall of Fame. Sharpe made the first cut from 15 to 10, but was not in the final cutdown from 10 to 5 among the modern-era players who were eligible.

The news that Sharpe fell short was somewhat surprising, but when looking at the list of candidates who were eligible for this year’s class, not overwhelmingly so. Everyone knew that Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith were locks to be inducted in the first year of eligibility for each. Also, Sharpe is in a pool of pass catchers that are also in line for induction: Andre Reed, Cris Carter and Tim Brown. Brown and Carter failed to make the first cut, while Reed fell short with Sharpe.

In addition, the Hall had a backlog of candidates that have been on the list for years and have been denied by candidates who were deemed more deserving. Some of those candidates finally were elected on Saturday. Russ Grimm had been eligible for years, and becomes the first member of the famed “Hogs” offensive line of the Washington Redskins of the ’80s and early ’90s to get into the Hall. Rickey Jackson, for years one of the best pass rushing linebackers for the New Orleans Saints and later the San Francisco 49ers had also been on the line for a few years. The same can also be said for the two senior candidates who were elected: Floyd Little and Dick LeBeau. With only a maximum of seven slots, there are going to be a number of candidates who are going to have to wait their turn. Sharpe just happens to be one of them.

I have no doubt that Sharpe, as well as Carter and Tim Brown, and perhaps even Reed will all eventually get in. It’s just going to take some time, particularly with a lot of deserving players on the list now and in years to come. Remember, in a few years Jonathan Ogden will be eligible. Will he have to wait a few years, or is he a first year lock to get in? Time will tell.

The Love Of The Game Revisited

Dear @tat2dsteelergal, @Tailgate365, @Pigsknlvnglady, @MDBirdLover, @steelergurl, @carolinaware and @thenflchick:

So What Do We Do Now?

Ladies and gentlemen, the 2009 NFL season has ended. The New Orleans Saints brought one home for NOLA and its thirsty for a championship fans, beating the favored Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV by a score of 31-17. With the final gun of the final game of the season, we are all left to football withdrawal for the next few months. Oh sure, the scouting combine is coming up shortly, the NFL Draft in a couple months and training camp a couple months after that.

But no games.

No Sunday afternoon communals in front of the tube or in the stands, or with friends or via internet meeting places. Sundays (and Monday nights) will be a lot quieter without NFL football.

No smack talk. No great hits, great plays and great laughs and sorrows to share.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure we all will be entertained in the months to come until the NFL ramps up again. Some of us will follow hockey, some college and NBA hoops, some with baseball, and some with all of those. And oh yeah, there’s the Winter Olympics about to begin too, if you’re interested. Life goes on for all of us outside of the sport we love; and we got to deal with that as well.

But the gridiron quiets down just a bit. The sporting passion of fans like yourself and many others recedes ever so slightly, only to build again as we inch ever closer to the beginning of another NFL season. As we move on to the next one, the sport faces an uncertain future:  labor questions in the distance with the possibility of an uncapped year next season and a possible lockout for the season after that. Let’s not dwell on that; there will be time to focus on and discuss the possibility that after next season a football season won’t start on time, or at all.

For me, personally: I just want to thank you all again for making this season extremely enjoyable. First with your participation in my original Love Of The Game post, and throughout the season as we commiserated about the greatest game on the planet: NFL Football.

P.S. To so many others on Twitter that I shared Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays and even Saturdays with over the past NFL season, thank you as well. I’ll try to name as many of you as I can, but if you think you should’ve been mentioned and you weren’t: hey, you know what I say-charge it to my head and not my heart.

@SidelinePass, @asportsscribe, @dfolkens, @cosadulce, @Inkognegro, @MkRob, @ltma, @brownsugar63, @ninerchick05, @cowboychick, @mrsFAB, @12kyle, @jeffw171, @GelaTrish, @edthesportsfan, @ay52, @stephsherman, @snwann, @khaijg, @Hail_Mary_Jane, @MDSteelerGal, @JUS_chillin, @BigDubz, @julythirteenth, @sbolen, @BMoreGoHard and @lovejonz618 (her Saints are champs at last!), thank you all.

Random Sports Thoughts 7

Around and about in the world of sports:

• Congratulations to the seven members of the newest class of the NFL Hall of Fame: Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, John Randle, Rickey Jackson, Russ Grimm, Dick LeBeau and Floyd Little. Rice and Smith were no-brainers of course, and the other candidates deserved their nods as well. There is a backlog of great players that are eligible for the Hall; it will take some time to get all of them in. I would just like to put in a few words for Grimm. Given the fact that the Hogs were one of the best offensive lines of the last 25-30 years, it’s actually about time one of them got some recognition by the Hall.
• There was talk last week of the NCAA opting out of their contract with CBS and possibly expanding the NCAA basketball tournament from it’s current 65 team format to 96 teams. Okay, let me get this straight. No action is necessary for a college football playoff, but the greatest college event ever needs to break up the current format to let more teams in? I don’t think so…this thing reeks of a money grab. Not to mention, that if they really want to fix the tournament they should get rid of the play-in game, or at the least let the last two at-large teams play in that game. Don’t put a small school automatic qualifier in the game-they deserve the opportunity to have the full tournament experience much more than some BCS school mediocrity. Not to mention, if the tournament did include 96 teams, most if not all of those spots would be to BCS schools with unimpressive resumes.
• The days are growing short leading into spring training for another baseball season, and I wonder what exactly will the Orioles look like this year. I’ll have more to say about them as the season gets closer, but it has been a pretty quiet offseason for Baltimore’s baseball birds. For some fans, it has been too quiet. I’ll reserve judgement until things get going, but once again, I am hoping for progress. I’m not expecting a worst-to-first season, but at least be competitive past the All-Star break, and if possible, make an approach to .500.
• Gilbert Arenas was suspended for the remainder of this season, and has probably seen his last days as a member of the Washington Wizards. Has there been a more stunning fall from grace? Arenas was once the prince of the city; his blog was popular and his skills on the court made fans sit up and take notice. His absence serves as just a symbol of the Wizards’ season; where they were counting on him to finally be healthy enough to play, he ends up missing another large chunk of a third consecutive season. I don’t see how the Wizards can keep this core of players together, with Arenas surely gone it may be time for Ernie Grunfeld (or someone else) to blow this team up and build it back from the ground up. It will definitely be interesting to see how the Wizards proceed from here.

Maryland Terrapins: Time To Pay Attention

With football about to go on hiatus (the games, not the business), the time has come for me to begin paying attention to college and pro hoops. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been kinda keeping an eye on both of them (the NBA due to the Arenas mess and the fantasy basketball league I’m in), but this post will be about ACC hoops in general and the Maryland Terrapins in particular.

Almost every year without fail, the ACC is generally acknowledged as one of, if not the best, college hoops conference. Football in the ACC is a secondary thought-the joke is that the ACC is a basketball conference that dabbles in football. That perception is primarily borne on the success of the two unquestioned powerhouses in conference-Duke and North Carolina. Year after year, these two programs are the marquee features in the league, with successful season after successful season. Their success is often a given in the league-almost every year one or the other is expected to win the league and claim its automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. This year was expected to be no different. However, this year the conference race is wide open. Duke, while still good, is still beatable with the same flaws that have shown up in recent years. North Carolina is suffering a hangover no one really expected, as their young players haven’t quite gotten up to speed with life in the ACC. Everyone else is up and down depending on the opponent.

As it stands right now, Duke is in front, with a one game lead over a surprising Maryland Terrapins squad that is tied with Duke in the loss column. If the Terps can beat North Carolina today, they will finish the first half of their conference schedule with a 6-2 record, which actually wouldn’t be too shabby. The two conference games the Terps lost could hardly be considered shocking: a 2-point overtime loss to an athletic Wake Forest team and a loss to Clemson, both on the road. The Clemson loss may represent the worst game the Terps have played in conference so far. The second half of their conference schedule features two games with Duke and Virginia, the conference’s other surprise team, as well as dates with Clemson, Virginia Tech, NC State and Georgia Tech.  A 5-4 finish would get the Terps to 20 wins with 10 losses, and a 10-6 conference record. Granted, as a fan of the Terps you would want them to do better than that down the stretch, but that finish coupled with one win in the ACC tournament should be enough to get the Terps into the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive season. This time last year, Gary Williams was coming under fire for losing games and clashing with the administration, and yet this year, I’ve heard nothing about coaching, or problems.

So from this point forward, I’ll be giving college hoops greater attention between now and the NCAA championship game.

At BSR: Positional Review – D’Backs

This week’s post at the Baltimore Sports Report focuses on a season ending review of the Baltimore Ravens cornerbacks and safeties. This post is part of another series at the site regarding the Ravens. This new series will review the team at each position. So far, posts have been published that review the receiving corps and the running backs.

Fans of the Ravens, Orioles, Maryland’s Terrapins or sports in general should stop by the Baltimore Sports Report. Check out the site, which is now being staffed by a group of writers who are fans just like you. If you see something interesting, leave some comments.

522 Games Down, 1 To Go…

There have been 522 games played in the 2009 NFL season. Those games have all been a prelude to the one game that means everything in the NFL: the Super Bowl. The 44th edition of the ultimate game (though if it is the ultimate game, how come they play it every year?) will feature the two teams that were the last to lose in the regular season: the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. At some point, both of these teams were expected to be here, particularly when they both were undefeated. Both limped home in the regular season though: the Saints lost three of their last four, and the Colts lost their last two, though how hard they were trying to win those two is up for debate. Both were the top seeds in their respective conferences, and both won two games at home to get to Miami for the right to play for the Lombardi trophy.

The Colts sliced and diced their way through two formidable defenses, while playing stellar defense of their own in their wins over the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets. There are those who would say the Colts had an easy road, having to play the AFC’s fifth- and sixth-seeded teams at home while avoiding the supposedly formidable San Diego Chargers and New England Patriots. Despite that, Peyton Manning did what he usually does, which is make plays no matter who is on defense or what kind of opposition he faces. In other words, they beat who was in front of them, all the while making the last two weeks of the regular season look absolutely meaningless.

The Saints on the other hand, set off a city-wide party with their two playoff wins over the Cardinals and Vikings. While the Saints destroyed the Cardinals with their offensive firepower, the Vikings held the Saints offense relatively in check. In fact, the Vikings overwhelmingly dominated the offensive statistics in the game, but came up short because of five turnovers. If the Vikings don’t give the ball to the Saints, it very well could’ve been Brett Favre, and not Drew Brees, opposing Manning in Super Bowl 44. But the Saints kept taking the ball away, and did what was necessary in overtime to set off the biggest non-Mardi Gras party the Crescent City has ever seen.

So who will win the game? As much as I would love for the Saints to win-if for no other reason than to see the month-long party that will ensue with a Super Bowl win and Mardi Gras-I think the Colts will take it. Both offenses will put up points, but the key will be which defense can make enough stops. If the Saints can force Manning into mistakes and the Colts into turnovers, they definitely can win, but will they? I’m thinking not nearly enough to pull off the upset. Most of all, I’m hoping for an exciting game…there have been few of them in this year’s postseason.

Enjoy the game, no matter who you are rooting for.

At BSR: The Playoffs

Once again, I have contributed another post at the Baltimore Sports Report’s Ravens Year In Review series. This time, I take a look at the team’s performance in the playoffs. You can find that post here. Two other posts have been written about the season since my last piece ran: one on the rollercoaster the Ravens went through at midseason, and the push to the playoffs. Please check them all out.

At BSR: The Losing Streak

Over at the Baltimore Sports Report, the writers have begun a series of posts reviewing the Ravens’ recently concluded season. My contribution to their efforts thus far focuses on regular season games four through six, which constituted a three-game losing streak. You can see my version of those events here.

Previous entries take a look at the offseason following the AFC Championship game appearance, the preseason, and the first three weeks, when hopes were raised that the Ravens were the best team in the NFL (at least by the likes of ESPN.com). Take a look, Ravens fans and let us know what you think in the comments.

High Scorers: Ravens Post Mortem

Yes, the Baltimore  Ravens 2009 season is over. It didn’t quite go the way we’d hoped, but overall it was a success…another playoff appearance, some growth in several areas, a found star in Ray Rice. However, when the season falls short of the ultimate goal, it’s up to bloggers to pick up the pieces and figure out what went wrong, and what moves to make in the future to do better next season. To that end, High Scorers will focus on blogs and bloggers who are looking at last season, and looking ahead to next season.

The Baltimore Sports Report has several posts taking a look back at the past season; look for mine on games 4-6 of the season (see next post as well).

The Ebony Bird gives his take on the cornerbacks the Ravens should consider acquiring to improve the depth at the position.

Bird Brains On The Half Shell takes a look at what might happen with the current wide receivers on the roster.

Big Steve at The City That Reeds takes stock of both wide receivers and defensive backs, with who should stay and who should go.

Matt at Ravens Gab makes a plea for the Ravens brain trust-upgrade the offense! Quick, fast and in a hurry!

And while many Ravens fans are hoping the Ravens acquire a big name wide receiver, Bruce at Baltimore Beatdown opines that getting one might not make that much of a difference.

If you’re a fan of the Ravens, take a look at these and make your own opinions. Enjoy!

Ravens Review: The End

A basic assumption of most sporting events is that you have to score to win. Basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer…just about any game you can name, you have to put points on the board. In sports, we keep score. So given that assumption, you would have to figure that the Baltimore Ravens offense would need to score points, particularly when the opposition has Peyton Manning at quarterback. In 60 minutes of football last night at Lucas Oil Stadium, the Ravens could only come up with three points. Three points means that the defense would need to play lights out and pitch a shutout of the Colts to win the game. While the defense did what it could, it couldn’t shut down the Colt offense nearly enough; and so the Ravens’ season comes to a close on the heels of a 20-3 defeat to Baltimore’s old team. This defeat marks the eighth straight time the Colts have beaten the Ravens. And with that defeat, comes the realization that my ticket has been punched to head for the Loser’s Lounge for this NFL season.

In a season where expectations were high for a Ravens team coming off a AFC Championship game appearance, this may ultimately be seen as a step back. The Ravens’ season ended one week shorter than it did the season before with a worse won-loss record. Yet in some ways, there was growth. Ray Rice in particular, had a great season that even his late fumble in this game didn’t diminish. Joe Flacco, while not exactly great in the latter stages of the season, did improve across the board in his second season; if the brain trust can find him some additional playmakers, particularly at wide receiver, those numbers figure to improve. The offensive line did a good job for most of the season. While the defense started the season shaky, they improved as the season wore on. Last night’s performance wasn’t bad by any stretch. The Ravens couldn’t generate much pass rush on Manning, but coverage was tight all game long and didn’t allow much in the way of a running game. The Colts scored twenty points, but they dinked and dunked their way down the field as the Ravens didn’t give up the big play. And still the Colts won the game easily, as 20 points were more than enough on this night.

Ravens fans could really tell it wasn’t going to be their team’s night during one series in the third quarter. After Manning lofted a pass that was intercepted by Ed Reed, Reed fumbled the ball on the interception return after being hit by Pierre Garcon. The ball bounced perfectly on one hop to the Colts’ Dallas Clark. As if that wasn’t enough, five plays later Manning was again intercepted by Reed, but the 54-yard return was called back on a pass interference call by Corey Ivy. That pretty much ended the competitive portion of the game, particularly with the Ravens’ offense not offering any kind of a response. Also, as it had in times all season, untimely penalties helped to doom the Ravens. Ivy’s pass interefence call was one, as was the personal foul call on Ray Lewis. Mistakes and penalties have haunted the Ravens in many a game this season and have been their downfall time after time.

When all is said and done, this season will be looked at as a success overall, but there are some issues that will have to be solved if the Ravens figure to go further in a conference as competitive as the AFC. Ozzie Newsome will have some decisions to make. He’s got to find some more depth on the defense, but even more importantly he cannot let another offseason go by without getting a #1 wide receiver. It was a need last offseason and was not addressed. This offseason he has got to find a receiver who can make plays and stretch the field. What good is having a quarterback who can throw the deep ball if none of his recievers can get open downfield? Derrick Mason isn’t that guy, Mark Clayton isn’t that guy and it appears by the way the coaching staff has played him, Demetrius Williams isn’t that guy. And with the defense aging and Ed Reed thinking about retirement, there have got to be some concerns about positions on defense, particularly in the secondary. Even though the play on the back end improved towards the end of the season, there was concern at cornerback all season long. The aforementioned mistakes and penalties will have to be corrected and cleaned up if this franchise expects to make a run at a Super Bowl.

Thank you, Baltimore Ravens for another good year. I’m hoping that the front office continues on the path to make the organization consistent contenders and keep climbing towards yet another championship for the city, the team and its fans.

PS-R.I.P. Gaines Adams. Prayers go out to his family and friends.