<\/p>\n
Okay, 2009 is feeling kind of strange and I\u2019ve got some questions about what\u2019s going on.\u00a0 <\/span>There have been some weird deals, odd decisions and bizarre behavior.<\/p>\n Cleveland Browns<\/strong>: Last week the Browns fired head coach Romeo Crennel, former Bill Belichick prot\u00e9g\u00e9, and yesterday hired Eric Mangini, former Bill Belichick prot\u00e9g\u00e9. In four seasons, Crennel took the Browns to a 24- 40 record. Mangini, who was let go by the New York Jets last week, was 23- 25 in three years with the Jets. Mangini got a four-year deal from the Browns. Crennel took his team to a 4- 12 record this season. Mangini got the Jets to a 9- 7 record. Crennel\u2019s Browns finished fourth in their division while Mangini\u2019s Jets were third in the AFC East.<\/p>\n So my question is\u2014why hire Mangini? Is he really that much better? Why give the guy a four-year deal? Is he that good? Are the coaching ranks in the NFL that thin? How did the Browns go from Bill Cowher, who they wanted and but he turned them down, to Eric Mangini? Is there no in between?\u00a0 <\/span>Just wondering.<\/p>\n B.C. Eagles<\/strong>:\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019m talking about both the B.C. football and basketball Eagles. First the football Eagles. They had warned head coach Jeff Jagodzinski that his job would be in jeopardy if he interviewed with the New York Jets. The franchise was interested in Jagodzinski replacing Mangini. Jagodzinski did interview with New York on Tuesday and he was fired by Boston College on Wednesday. I applaud Jagodzinski for not caving into B.C. and I give the Eagles\u2019 football organization a grade of \u201cF\u201d for class. And then there\u2019s the B.C. basketball Eagles. They knocked off the number one team in the nation\u2014the UNC Tar Heels\u2014this past weekend and earned a Top-25 ranking and then they lost to the Harvard Crimson 82- 70 last night. It wasn\u2019t even close. Think maybe they\u2019re out of the national rankings next week? They should be!<\/p>\n Boston Celtics<\/strong>: A slide is only good in baseball and that means that the slide the Celtics are on is frightening. The team can\u2019t seem to buy a win, having lost on Wednesday to the Houston Rockets 85- 89. The Celts have lost six of their last eight and are now 29- 8 and a mere 10.5 games ahead of second-place New Jersey. Yes, Boston has lost three straight but their stats are sound and they possess the third best winning percentage in the NBA. Call me in March if they\u2019re in third-place in the Atlantic Division and out of the playoff picture. (I don\u2019t really think it\u2019s frightening\u2014that was sarcasm.)<\/p>\n New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox<\/strong>: The Yankees are spending too much money on guys who will, once again, break down and Boston is after Smoltz\u2014a 41 year-old pitcher! My god, watch out, the Rays are going to take it again and the Jays or O\u2019s may capture the Wild Card. The Yankees have spent over 3 billion dollars since 2000 to not win the World Series and the Red Sox are showing signs of dementia with Smoltz. C.C. Sabathia, who the Yanks signed last month, should be in his prime at 28 years old. But has anyone noticed that he\u2019s FAT? I mean\u2014F-A-T!\u00a0 <\/span>Last season he was 17- 10 with 35 starts and an ERA of 2.70. That\u2019s great! But the two seasons before, when he started 18 and 17 games, he won a total of 17 and lost 10. And by the way, New York\u2019s Rivera, Posada, Damon and Matsui, all starters, have great breakdown potential too. I\u2019ve got a feeling that the tide is turning in the AL East and I\u2019d like to see both the Yanks and Sox out of the post-season.<\/p>\n Ottawa\u2019s Jarkko Ruutu<\/strong>: I\u2019m thinking after Tuesday night\u2019s game between the Senators and Sabres, that Ottawa\u2019s Jarkko Ruutu should be playing with the Sharks. That\u2019s some mean bite he\u2019s got! Here\u2019s what happened. Buffalo\u2019s Andrew Peters, a known enforcer, took a swipe at Ruutu. Peters shoved his glove into the Ottawa player\u2019s face. Ruutu bit down on Peters\u2019 glove, cutting into his thumb, drawing blood and ripping the glove from his hand.<\/p>\n Rutuu, in some sort of adolescent denial, said he never bit Peters. But replays of the incident, which are currently a big hit on YouTube, showed that he did take a definitive bite out of the Buffalo player\u2019s hand. Rutuu has been suspended for two games without pay.<\/p>\n My question\u2014is this anyway for a hockey player to act? Fighting is one thing but cannibalism is another. Next time these two teams meet, I think Rutuu will get the stuffing beat out of him. Of course his bite is worse than his bark.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2009 has been an odd year so far. And it\u2019s barely a week old!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Okay, 2009 is feeling kind of strange and I\u2019ve got some questions about what\u2019s going on.\u00a0 There have been some weird deals, odd decisions and bizarre behavior. Cleveland Browns: Last week the Browns fired head coach Romeo Crennel, former Bill Belichick prot\u00e9g\u00e9, and yesterday hired Eric Mangini, former Bill Belichick prot\u00e9g\u00e9. In four seasons, Crennel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[120,610,618,360,356,149],"class_list":["post-949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-boston-college","tag-boston-red","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-new-york-jets","tag-new-york-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}