NHL still locked out, MLB free agency starting

NHL Lockout to Continue

- A federal mediator has be unable to do what the NHL and the NHL’s Players Association claim to be striving towards, starting the NHL season soon. Two days of meetings with both sides have led to nothing.
Recently, Gary Bettman (who is in the running for the worst commissioner in the history of North American sports) has offered to have the owners, the constituency he represents, meet with the players directly without any league or player’s association representatives available.
- The owners will be meeting on Wednesday, and the players have started rumbling about decertifying the union and suing the NHL in court. Neither of these two events is likely to bring quick resolution to this issue. It is beginning to look more and more likely that there will be no NHL season in 2012-13, the second time that the league would miss an entire season in the past eight years.


First Moves in MLB Free Agency

- BJ Upton, formerly of the Tampa Bay Rays, is the first big name to change teams this baseball offseason. Upton signed a 5-year $76 million contract with the Atlanta Braves. Upton will likely take over for fellow free agent outfielder Michael Bourn, who is now nearly certain to leave Atlanta.
- Another player leaving the AL East is Russell Martin, after he signed a 2-year $17 million contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Martin chose to leave the New York Yankees after two years behind the plate in the Bronx. Martin was a lower priority for the Yankees (who have already re-signed Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda and Mariano Rivera) and he never received an offer from his former team before accepting this deal with the Pirates.
- The biggest trade in the past few days has been the Washington Nationals, fresh off their first playoff win since moving to the nation’s capital, trading to get Denard Span from the Minnesota Twins for a minor leaguer. Moving some players around the field, Span will likely take the spot in the lineup of first baseman Adam Laroche who is a free agent this season.
- Two players who won't be changing addresses any time soon are Evan Longoria and David Wright, possibly the two best third basemen in baseball.  Longoria received a 6 year, $100 million deal that will kick in after the 2016 season and Wright received a 7 year $124 million deal that will kick in after the 2013 season.  Both deals are the largest in their respective teams' history.

College Football Movement All Over the Place

Miles offered Arkansas job

• Say what you will about Les "The Mad Hatter" Miles. While his coaching style may be unorthodox and risky, he wins games, both in the regular season as well as in the BCS (He's won two SEC title games and a BCS Championship).
• Arkansas has not done any of that lately although they were scratching at the door before coach Bobby Petrino was fired last year. So knowing the value of an elite coach, Arkansas has offered their position to Miles in a monstrous $27.5 million, 5 year deal. Miles' agent has denied that such an offer has taken place, as agents typically do for reasons that we don't understand.
• Miles has been connected to other jobs in the past, being rumored to have taken the Michigan job a few years ago before he turned it down and it was eventually given to Rich Rodriguez. Despite their 10-2 record in 2012, LSU will not play in one of the five "big" BCS Bowls this year.
• Meanwhile, Kentucky has agreed to hire Mark Stoops, the defensive coordinator from Florida State and younger brother of current Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops. Expect to see a number of coaches hired and fired over the next few weeks.

College Programs on the Move Again

• In the past few weeks, many major college programs have eschewed their conference affiliation for new conferences. This started last week with Maryland (formerly of the ACC) and Rutgers (formerly of the Big East) both agreed to move to the Big 10 (which formerly had 12 schools, and will now have 14).
• Due to this move, Maryland was sued for $56 million by the ACC as an exit fee. Maryland has refused to pay for the fee, which is equal to 3-years worth of operating expenses for the ACC.
• In response to losing these schools, the ACC has agreed to add the Louisville Cardinals formerly of the Big East, and the Big East has agreed to add Tulane and East Carolina to replace Rutgers and Louisville.

Notre Dame books BCS ticket, other programs fire coaches

Notre Dame wins, will play in BCS Title game

- After years of mediocre coaching and blowouts at the hands of "rivals" like Michigan State and USC, Notre Dame is back atop the College Football landscape and will play for the BCS Title this January in Miami.  The final test for the Fighting Irish came Saturday in Los Angeles against a USC team that started the season ranked #1 but underachieved all season long and lost star QB Matt Barkley to a shoulder injury last week.  USC kept it close, but failed to score on 6 consecutive plays inside Notre Dame's 10 yard line late in the 4th quarter as Notre Dame's stingy defense held strong, as they have all year and they won the game 22-13.
- Lou Holtz, Dan Devine and Ara Parseghian all won National Championships at Notre Dame in their third season as head coach.  This season is Brian Kelly's third as Notre Dame's head coach.
- The Irish will play the winner of the SEC Championship game which pits #2 Alabama against #3 Georgia.  Alabama has won two of the last three BCS Titles and will likely be a huge favorite in this game as well but Georgia has put together an impressive streak since losing to South Carolina early in the season and veteran QB Aaron Murray is the only QB in SEC history to throw for 3000 yards in 3 seasons.


Black Sunday in College Football

- The day after the end of the regular season in most sports sees the firings of many coaches who haven’t performed up to snuff. This year’s coaches who were fired were particularly interesting.
NC State fired Tom O’Brien after 6 years. In those 6 years O’Brien was a fairly respectable 40-35, but was 22-26 in conference play (ACC). This year, the Wolfpack had one of the biggest upsets of the year defeating Florida State, but then lost back-to-back games to archrival UNC and then an inexcusable loss to lowly Virginia, that largely sealed O’Brien’s fate.
- The biggest firing of Sunday was that of Gene Chizik of Auburn, less than two years after winning a National Championship. Chizik coached four years, including the 2010 National Championship team with Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton. However, a 3-9 record including an 0-8 record in the SEC this year was Chizik’s downfall. Losing to #2 Alabama 49-0 (and it could have been a lot worse) this weekend was the final nail in the coffin.
- Tennessee coach Derek Dooley, who also went 0-8 in the SEC at a prestigious program didn't even make it to Sunday and was fired last week.

Thanksgiving Football Recap

Thanksgiving NFL recap

• True to Sportico's Wednesday predictions, the two early games were competitive while the late game was a blowout.
  In the first game, the Lions lost on Thanksgiving for the 9th consecutive year despite controlling most of the game against the 9-1 Houston Texans. The turning point came on Justin Forsett's 81 yard TD run when Houston had been down by 10. Two Lions defenders brought Forsett down and the play would have been automatically reviewed since it was a score, but Lions coach Jim Schwartz threw his review flag in the heat of the moment. According to NFL rules, after Schwartz threw the challenge flag, he could not benefit from an automatic review, and the play stood as called.
  After tying the game, it went to OT where both teams' kickers missed a FG before Shayne Graham made his second attempt giving Houston the win.
• In the second game, Washington Redskins superstar rookie Robert Griffin III announced himself to the national audience. RGIII threw four touchdowns en route to a 38-31 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. 
• The Redskins went into halftime with a 28-3 lead and looked to be cruising, however Dallas scored 25 of the next 32 points to pull to 35-28. Both teams would kick a field goal and that was all she wrote.
• The Redskins and Cowboys, now both 5-6, will be watching Sunday night football closely to see if the division leading New York Giants who play the Green Bay Packers. If the Giants lose, the Redskins will play the Giants next weekend with the winner having the inside track for the NFC East title.
• In the late game, the New York Jets were tied 0-0 after the first quarter... and then the New England Patriots exploded for 35 points in the second quarter including 3 touchdowns in 53 seconds to win in a rout, 49-19, as Bill Belicheck won his 200th career game. Part of this was a defensive touchdown, followed by a fumble returned for a touchdown on the ensuing kick-off.
• The Jets are now 4-7 and boisterous coach Rex Ryan was forced to admit that he couldn't blame the Jets fans for booing their pathetic effort. Tom Brady through for 323 yards and 3 TD's and has only thrown 3 interceptions all season long.

Scoring Record Shattered and NFL Preview

Individual scoring record shattered

• Typically, when one team is making shot after shot against you, you will respond by changing defenders, switching defenses or pulling some other trick out of your hat in order to affect some change.
• With all due respect to Faith Bible College, it seems that their coach was lacking for answers because he allowed an opposing guard (Jack Taylor of Grinnell, a D3 school) to score 138 points, including 80 in the second half, both of which are unsurprisingly all-time NCAA records.
• How lopsided was the scoring? Taylor made 52 of 108 shots (none of his teammates made more than 5 or shot more than 6) and he played for 36 minutes while no one else on his team played more than 15. And while it can't be proved that Taylor failed to make a pass all night, he did fail to record a single assist. But hey if you can win a game 1 on 5 why pass?
• Lost in the ridiculous outburst is the fact that an opposing player, David Larson, also had a pretty great game as well, making 34 of 44 shots for 70 points.

Week 12 NFL Preview

•  The usual slate of Thanksgiving games gives us two pretty compelling games, and one that should be a blowout as most of us are getting ready to wake up early for some Black Friday shopping. The first game has the Houston Texans traveling to take on the Detroit Lions in what can basically be a win-or-end-the-season game for the Lions. While the Dallas Cowboys face a similar situation hosting their arch-rival Washington Redskins. The night game features the New England Patriots at the New York Jets, which should be an easy game for Tom Brady and a tough one for the struggling Jets.
• Perhaps the best game on Sunday will be the Atlanta Falcons at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs, coming off of a overtime victory last week, host the NFC's best team. The Falcons, despite being 9-1 have many doubters, and are only favored by one point in this game.
• The second best game of the day is perhaps the San Francisco 49ers traveling to take on the New Orleans Saints. The 49ers, who dominated the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football, will look to squash the renewed hopes of the Saints, who are now 5-5 after starting the season 0-4.

NCAA wraps up crazy weekend, Nascar title decided

Massive Upheaval in College Football

- #1 Kansas State and #2 Oregon were seemingly in cruise control, needing only to win a couple more games in order to play each other for the national championship in Miami in a couple months.  However, they both lost on Saturday opening the door for recently dethroned #1 Alabama to play for their third title in four years. The #2 ranked Oregon Ducks fell to the #17 ranked Stanford Cardinal 17-14 in overtime. Oregon missed a field goal in overtime allowing for Stanford to kick their attempt to win the game. If Stanford wins next week, the Ducks will go from a National Championship spot to not even playing in their conference championship game with this loss.
- The #1 ranked Kansas State Wildcats were stymied by one of the worst defenses in the country, losing to Baylor 52-24. Helped in large part by a 24 point 3rd quarter, the Baylor Bears destroyed the Wildcats, effectively knocking QB Colin Klein out of the driver's seat of the Heisman Trophy as well. Kansas State dropped to #6 in the newly released BCS rankings, while Oregon fell to #5.
- The undefeated Notre Dame Fighting Irish take over at #1 in the BCS championship, and will face a Matt Barkley-less USC Trojan teams with a shot at the National Championship game on the line. Should the Irish win, they will likely face the winner of the SEC championship game, which will be either the previously mentioned #2 Alabama Crimson Tide or the #3 Georgia Bulldogs as long as both of those teams beat lesser opponents this weekend.


Brad Keselowski wins Sprint Cup Championship

- Brad Keselowski won the first NASCAR championship for Penske Racing after five-time champion Jimmy Johnson blew out a tire and couldn’t finish the race. Keselowski, who got in trouble earlier in the season for tweeting from his car during a race stoppage, tweeted “We did it!” as soon as he left his car.
- This could have all been for not, as Keselowski ran out of gas and had to see Johnson go up a lap. After a poor pitstop by Johnson, Keselowski was able to catch up and he never looked back.
- This victory is the first for a Dodge car since 1975, and comes in the last race that Dodge will run in NASCAR.  Additionally, it was only the third time that a driver in his first three years won a championship and with the other two being Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon, it looks like Keselowski has a promising career in front of him.

MLB awards, NHL in jeopardy

MLB hands out remaining awards

- Over the past two days the MLB has given out its MVP awards as well as its Cy Young awards, which are given to the league's best player and pitcher respectively.  THE A.L. MVP award pitted Miguel Cabrera against Mike Trout, each of whom had phenomenal seasons that would have likely won the award in a landslide most other years.  In the end though, the fact that Cabrera won the Triple Crown and also that his Tigers made it to the World Series while Trout's Angels failed to even make the playoffs pushed the odds in Cabrera's favor and he won by a surprisingly wide margin.
- The N.L. award went to Giants catcher Buster Posey who led the N.L. in hitting and had career highs in Home Runs and RBI's only a season after suffering a devastating leg injury and missing most of the 2011 campaign.  This year Posey came back and was a big reason the Giants were able to win their second World Series in three years.
- The Cy Young awards both had some intrigue: The N.L. award went to 38 year old knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, the first player ever to win the award who prominently used the quirky pitch.  Additionally, he was only the third player ever to win the award while pitching for a team that had a losing record and amazingly earned 20 wins for the Mets this season (their first 20-game winner since 1990) an incredible 27% of his team's total wins.
- The A.L. award went to David Price of the the Tampa Bay Rays who barely edged out Justin Verlander in what was by far the closest race of the year and was the second closest Cy Young race ever (only a tie in 1969 has been closer).  Price won despite losing a couple votes to his teammate Fernando Rodney, who finished 5th despite being a reliever (The Cy Young award almost exclusively goes to starters).  Interestingly enough, Verlander won both the Cy Young and the MVP award last year, but couldn't repeat with either despite having his team make the World Series.


NHL lockout still ongoing

- The NHL lockout, which has already cost the more than 300 games, including the very popular Winter Classic, looks like it will extend even longer. Commissioner Gary Bettman reportedly suggested a 2-week moratorium on negotiations with the NHL Players Association so that he can reconnect with his constituents.
- Players are asking for a fixed amount of revenue, while the owners don’t feel like it is fair to promise that not knowing the economic future of the league or the nation. Games are currently cancelled through the end of November, and this two week moratorium could force the cancelling of games through the end of 2012 and possibly into 2013.
- NHL greats Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin, Adam Oates and Pavel Bure were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame over the weekend but even during that festive occasion, the dark cloud of the lockout loomed and those players reminisced about the last lockout, which cancelled the 04-05 season completely. "It was awful," Sundin said. "I think it's devastating."  Hopefully the NHL can avoid more devastation only 8 years later.

Baseball movement and awards

Massive Baseball Trade

- The Miami Marlins are in full blowup mode (again) as they continue selling pieces of their team from last year to cut payroll. Sources are reporting that the Marlins are almost done with a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays in which they will send 2011 price free agents (shortstop Jose Reyes and pitcher Mark Buerhle) as well as pitcher Josh Johnson, catcher John Buck and utility player Emilio Bonafacio.
- In return the Blue Jays will sending at least three players, including shortstop Yunel Escobar and their top two prospects in Jake Marisnick and Adeiny Hechavarria. The final agreement could include more players going to Miami.
- This move will likely make the Blue Jays much more competitive. Reyes and Bonafacio will likely be immediate starters, while Johnson and Buerhle will immediately be the top two starting pitchers on the Blue Jays’ staff. The Blue Jays are looking to compete in a division with the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles who all won 90 or more games last year.
- The deal has ignited a ton of commentary on Twitter from relevant players.  Remaining Marlin Giancarlo Stanton is apparently not happy but Bryce Harper (who we'll have more on below) has a simple solution for him.


Most Obvious ROY’s Ever

- As the 2012 baseball awards are handed out this week, the two most obvious awards are each conferences’ Rookie of the Year. These two young players were two of the best prospects in the past few years, and had incredible seasons to start their career.
- Bryce Harper, the outfielder for the Washington Nationals, received 16 of the 28 first place votes. Harper, the first pick in the 2010 draft, made it to the Major Leagues in late April and hit .270 with 22 home runs and 59 RBIs. Harper is the second youngest (by 24 days) winner of the National League Rookie of the Year award.
- Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim outfielder Mike Trout was the first unanimous winner of the AL Rookie of the Year since Evan Longoria in 2008. Trout has a legitimate chance to win the MVP this year after his beyond incredible year. He lead the league in WAR (wins above replacement - a statistic that judges the number of wins a player contributed to his team in a year), and would be the runaway MVP choice had Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers not won the triple crown.

Lakers hire coach, Football recap

D'Antoni, not Jackson, to coach Lakers

• Former Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni was hired to be the next coach of the Los Angeles Lakers Monday instead of Phil Jackson, as many had expected.  Jackson was asking for a king's ransom: the ability to take road trips off and make some personnel decisions to say nothing of the money he wanted. 
• The team likely would have given in to those demands if they thought it would give them the best chance to win, but his famous Triangle offense was seen as detrimental to the skills of new Lakers Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, while D'Antoni's up-tempo style meshes perfectly with Nash, who had a long period of success in Phoenix together.
• Jackson was reportedly 'stunned' not to be offered the job, probably assuming the D'Antoni was the backup plan only if he turned the job down.


K-State, Oregon 1-2

• After Alabama's stunning 29-24 loss to Texas A&M and star freshman QB Johnny Manziel (that was clinched on a 4th down offsides call) the BCS Title game looks to be SEC-free for the first time in years. 
• In the latest BCS standings, Kansas State is #1, while Oregon is #2 although those rankings are flip-flopped in the national polls.  Either way, those two will likely play in BCS Title game if they win their remaining games, leaving undefeated Notre Dame on the outside looking in at #3 unless something drastic happens.
• The 2005 season was the last time that there was no SEC team in the title game and in each of those six games, the SEC team has come out on top.
• Kansas State ends the season against #15 Texas while Oregon has an even tougher schedule, playing #13 Stanford, #16 Oregon State and most likely USC (or UCLA) in the Pac-12 Title game.
 

The Mighty Fall

• The Atlanta Falcons came into the weekend undefeated and facing the always dangerous New Orleans Saints. A couple of bad turnovers, a few choice penalties and star wide receiver Roddy White inexplicably cutting off a rout on what probably would have been the game winning touchdown, led to the New Orleans Saints winning 31-27, leaving the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the NFL's only undefeated team for at least one more year.
• The Falcons, at 8-1, are still in the driver’s seat in the NFC (as the Chicago Bears lost yesterday). The New Orleans Saints are now 4-5, and looking to make a late season push into playoff contention.
• As mentioned above, the Chicago Bears lost to the Houston Texans in a battle of the second best team in the NFC and the best team in the AFC. Part of the reason the Bears lost was the injury to quarterback Jay Cutler, who had to leave the game at halftime with a concussion. The Bears are still comfortably second in the conference.
• In addition to Jay Cutler, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith all left their games with concussions. All three were quarterbacks who have had calls to be benched by their fans, now look like they will have to sit down for at least one week.
• In Chicago, the Bears picked up veteran quarterback Jason Campbell as their backup, the Eagles will turn to rookie Nick Foles while the 49ers will turn to second year player Colin Kaepernick to lead them. The Bears and 49ers are both in contention for the Super Bowl, while Foles may be the future in Philly as Vick is a free agent after this year.

Colts Rolling, Lakers Stumbling

Colts top Jags, now 6-3

• Apparently the Indianapolis Colts didn't get the memo that trading Peyton Manning was supposed to usher in a couple painful years following his brilliant run as the team's QB and Andrew Luck may have quite a bit to do with that.
• The rookie phenom ran for two TD's and only made one mistake (an interception thrown while he was being hit) as the Colts won their 4th straight game, beating the hapless Jacksonville Jaguars 27-10.
• Luck eclipsed the TD total for his father Oliver's entire 4 year NFL career with his second score, the 15th of his career and has now doubled Peyton Manning's win total from his rookie year with the Colts.
• Reggie Wayne caught 8 passes for 96 yards, by far the NFL's leader in receiving yards, in the effort and Darius Butler caught two interceptions and also recovered a fumble.

Lakers Struggle Out of the Gate

• When the Lakers take on the Golden State Warriors tonight, they are favored to get their second victory of the season, unfortunately for the preseason Western Conference favorites, its their 6th game, and they are looking to move to 2-4.
• With the Thunder trading James Harden and the offseason acquisitions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, the path to the NBA finals looked very clear for the Lakers. However, a nicked up Nash and a slowed down Kobe Bryant have led to the Lakers stumble out of the gate.
• Some of their early season struggles can be attributed to the two new starters. Especially Howard who missed much of the preseason recovering from back surgery. This veteran team knows how to win, and are still the favorites in the Western Conference, but perhaps by a smaller margin than in the past.

Trouble in Texas, and Sporting Election Results

Dallas Engulfed

• The Dallas Cowboys are engulfed in major turmoil after yet another close loss this weekend, even though it was to the undefeated Atlanta Falcons. Major questions are being raised about quarterback Tony Romo and Owner/General Manager Jerry Jones.
• Quarterback Tony Romo faces a great deal of scrutiny after throwing 13 interceptions and only 10 touchdowns this week for a team that is only 3-5. Many Dallas fans are calling for Romo’s head as it does not seem like he is maximizing the talent around him.
• Jerry Jones is the picture of a tyrannical owner. He owns, runs and is the face of the team. However, the former college football player is not necessarily a qualified general manager. Many of his moves are reminiscent of former Oakland Owner/GM Al Davis who refused to see that he was hurting his team by refusing to give up the reigns. While many fans are calling for Jones to hire a qualified General Manager, Jones is reticent to change, saying to the that he will always be the GM of the team.
• Fans of "America's Team" have to hope that Romo and Jones can turn it around soon and starting putting the "W" back in Cowboys.

Sporting Figures Fair Poorly in Elections

• Perhaps the biggest sporting name in the 2012 elections was Linda McMahon. The wife of pro wrestling magnet Vince McMahon lost her second senate bid in 2 years for Connecticut. McMahon was defeated by Chris Murphy, after losing in 2010 to Richard Blumenthal. All told, McMahon spent $97 million on both campaigns combined.
• Another family member of sports royalty lost a senate bid on Tuesday as George Allen lost to Tim Kaine in the Virginia Senate race. Allen's brother Bruce is the General Manager of the Washington Redskins and their father George was a longtime coach of the Redskins

Football update, NCAA and NFL

Alabama Holds its Ground

• The Alabama Crimson Tide, who have been the #1 team in the country for 10 weeks in a row, were almost dethroned on Saturday. Facing #5 LSU, the Tide were down 17-14 with under a minute left. Tide quarterback AJ McCarron found wide receiver TJ Yeldon for a 28-yard touchdown to give the Tide a 21-17 victory.
• LSU was hurt by a couple of questionable trick plays that didn’t end up working, including a fake field goal, a failed onside kick attempt and a 4th down conversion that didn’t work. LSU coach Les Miles is known for rolling the dice with risky plays but on Saturday he showed remorse after the game saying he wish he had some calls back.
• The other big teams in college football won, with every top-14 team coming out victorious. The Oregon Ducks hurdled the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the BCS polls to take the #3 spot after Notre Dame had a huge upset scare, coming back from a 20-6 4th quarter deficit against unheralded Pittsburgh to win 29-26 in triple overtime.  Kansas State, the #2 team, remained undefeated as well however star QB and potential Heisman Trophy winner Colin Klein left the game with an unknown injury and is his status against TCU this week is uncertain.


Doug Martin Goes Off

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin had himself a huge game on Sunday much to the consternation of the Oakland Raiders, and many fantasy owners who had to play against him. Martin, a rookie running back from Boise State, ran for 251 yards and four touchdowns in the Bucs 45-35 in.
• Martin, who is from Oakland, was playing in front of more than 60 friends and family, which you'd think would cause Tampa Bay management to shell out for plane and game tickets for his loved ones to come to every Bucs game. He is only the second back in the history of the NFL to rush for 250 yards and four touchdowns in a single game. It wasn’t until less than 2 minutes were left in the game when Martin had a touchdown of less than 45 yards.
• Also deserving mention for their Sunday performance are Brandon Marshall and the entire Chicago Bears team who won 51-20 against the Tennessee Titans to improve to 7-1 on the season.  Marshall had 122 yards and 3 TD's, Matt Forte had a 100+ yard game with a TD and the Bears defense caused 5 turnovers, bringing 2 of them back for touchdowns.

Sandy wreaks havoc, more PSU mess

Hurricane Sandy Enters Sports World

• We are breaking no news to say that Hurricane Sandy has wreaked havoc on the east coast, especially the New Jersey and New York coastlines. The storm has had an impact on the sports world in a major way as well. The NFL pushed back its annual trade deadline by two days as its league offices (located in New York City) were closed Monday and Tuesday (the actual deadline).  This has already allowed the New England Patriots to acquire former first round pick, troubled CB Aqib Talib, from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a fourth round pick in next year's draft, a low-risk, high-reward addition by the Patriots
• This weekend, the Pittsburgh Steelers were to travel to New York (actually New Jersey) to take on the New York Giants. Due to the storm, many of the hotels in the area were closed down, including the one housing the Steelers accommodations. The Steelers will fly in the morning of their 4:25 game, and then fly back to Pittsburgh that night.
• One of the biggest news in New York sports this year was to take place Thursday with the New York Knicks traveling across their city to take on the Brooklyn Nets in the Net’s first game in the newly constructed Barclays Arena. This would have represented the first time in more than 50 years a professional sport team would call Brooklyn home. Due to the aftermath of the storm, the game and all the pomp and circumstance that was scheduled to go with it was postponed until November 26th.


Ex-PSU head charged with felony

• Despite already being fired as the president of Penn State University, Graham Spanier has not escaped the mess resulting from Jerry Sandusky's indiscretions.  The former administrator was charged with a felony for attempting to hide the child abuse complaints about Jerry Sandusky that were brought to his attention
• The charges carry an unknown amount of prison time and deal with complaints brought to his attention over a three year span, from 1998 to 2001.
• Two of Spanier's underlings, Gary Schultz and Tim Curley were also charged with lying to a federal grand jury on the matter.