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New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker has officially defied all the odds against a super-fast recovery to step in and play in the Patriots‘ second preseason game versus the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night August 19.
Welker played in the Patriots’ first drive of the game and was in for a total of six plays according to @MikeReiss on Twitter.
He was targeted three times by quarterback Tom Brady and Welker caught two of the passes for 20 yards before being seen on the sidelines with his helmet off and a towel over his head.
What an amazing coming from a catastrophic knee injury that happened only seven and a half months prior on January 3 in the final regular season game of the 2009 season against the Houston Texans.
Welker was carted off of the field and many were concerned as to if Welker would even play in the 2010 season at all.
Luckily, the injury was not severe as initially thought and he was able to get surgery and begin his rehabilitation quickly to get him to this night when he has shown what kind of dedicated player and teammate he truly is.
All other NFL, college, and high school football players should take notice of this remarkable feat and it shows that Welker is a true champion as an athlete.
Now Patriots fans have to start thinking that there is a good chance that Welker may actually play in the season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Welker was not scheduled to be ready for play until some time in October-ish.
In the meantime, the Patriots were planning on getting more reps to receivers Julian Edelman, Brandon Tate, and Taylor Price.
Looks like they will get those extra reps, but more so in the preseason and not as much in the regular season with Welker’s surprising recovery.
This news may have many teams re-examining the Patriots’ passing attack now because Welker alone has caught 346 passes for 3,688 yards and 15 touchdowns and his presence alone on the offense will make defenses think twice about who gets the ball between him and Randy Moss.
One of the NFL’s premier wide receivers just got healthy way faster than expected and you can believe that other teams have taken notice of the remarkable comeback.
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When Houston Texans’ linebacker Brian Cushing was notified in May of a failed drug test he took last September, he refused to believe the results came out correctly. There was no way the test could be right.
There must have been some mistake, Cushing thought.
Cushing vehemently denied testing positive for HCG, a fertility drug commonly used in conjunction with steroid cycles to help restart testosterone production. He said he never injected or digested any form of steroids and would stand by that conclusion.
In the end, though, it just didn’t matter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. A positive test is a positive test.
Per the NFL’s rules, Cushing became automatically ineligible for this season’s first four games after his positive test became public knowledge approximately three months ago.
Cushing appealed, but on Thursday Goodell upheld the suspension, which will keep the former USC Trojan out until Oct. 10 when Houston hosts the New York Giants.
The NFL issued this statement: “At the request of Texans owner Bob McNair, Commissioner Goodell reviewed additional medical information presented on behalf of Brian Cushing.
“The club and Cushing were notified today that after carefully considering all the information, including a review by outside medical experts, the Commissioner finds no basis for changing the decision that Mr. Cushing’s suspension for the first four games of the regular season remains in place.”
Cushing was not available for comment Thursday.
The sad part about all of this is that there is a case in Cushing’s favor. It wouldn’t be hard to stop for a minute and think about believing him.
Cushing said he took numerous drug tests after the one he failed in September, and all of those came up clean. Cushing believed that he was completely innocent, to the point that he even offered to take a lie detector test to rid himself of the steroid-user label that will now follow him around.
Cushing took the test and passed it.
The problem is that there are just too many holes in the story for Goodell to believe it. The fact that Cushing said he played his “best football” after the September test is irrelevant.
What’s worse is Cushing’s reported explanation for his positive test. He offered up the alibi that he tested positive because he “over-trained.” According to Cushing, he worked out so hard that he experienced spikes in testosterone, which in return triggered the positive test.
In this day and age of medical intelligence, health, and drug awareness, that reasoning wasn’t going to go over too well. There have been too many, “I didn’t knowingly take steroids” sob stories in recent years to believe anything as loosely described as “over-training.”
This is not to say, however, that Cushing did indeed use steroids, because for all we know, he may be telling the truth.
A positive test is a positive test, but a passed polygraph is a passed polygraph. So who knows?
Cushing has faced steroid allegations since his high school days, which could not have helped his case here, at least not in the public’s eye.
Many people thought Cushing ballooned as a linebacker at USC after leaving his home in New Jersey, but there’s never been any evidence to suggest that Cushing used steroids at Southern California.
Unfortunately for Cushing, Goodell had to make the difficult (maybe not so difficult if you asked Goodell) choice and refuse to rescind Cushing’s suspension.
Goodell had no other choice simply because he would have granted a way out for other steroid users if he granted Cushing his freedom.
The precedent that would have been set in Cushing’s case was much too dangerous for a guy who, after all, didn’t have inconclusive evidence stacked in his favor.
Fairly or unfairly, Cushing had to be a scapegoat.
If over-training has become a valid excuse for a positive drug test, then it could theoretically be applied to every professional athlete that tests positive in the future.
What makes Cushing’s reasoning so dangerous is the obvious question: What exactly constitutes over-training? How does an athlete determine when he is over-training, and how would doctors and trainers know the exact affects that stem from excess physical exertion?
It’s a muddy issue, an alibi that is impossible to defend because of its fluidity.
For years, it seemed as if the NFL simply turned its back on steroid use in its sport. The men who carried the NFL brand every week grew to become unfathomably strong, explosive, and powerful. How human bodies could withstand that kind of beating routinely, nobody knew.
And, more importantly, nobody cared.
The NFL was a juggernaut, the glistening diamond of American sport. Fans enjoyed the violence of the sport, physical damage to those involved be damned. Give us our Sundays, give us our football, and get the hell out of the way.
But as the years passed and baseball became essentially known as the grandfather sport of steroid use, we became more aware of the long-term dangers of steroids, and things changed.
Health became important. Safety became important.
The NFL has made great progress in the diagnosis and handling of concussions and head-related injuries. The same should be done for steroid use, and to the NFL’s credit, the league is doing that.
If Goodell let Cushing play in Week One this fall, the NFL would never have a compelling case in the fight against steroid use. One soft excuse would lead to others, and players and agents would always point back to Cushing.
We probably will never know if Cushing took steroids or not. It would be a shame if he really didn’t and serves a suspension. It’s already sad that a guy passes a polygraph test and, because of the history of our sporting society, we find it incredibly hard to believe him.
But Roger Goodell had to do it.
In the end, four games for Brian Cushing is a small price to pay for keeping the integrity of the NFL, and its case against steroid use, intact.
Follow Teddy Mitrosilis on Twitter. You can reach him at tm4000@yahoo.com.
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There were several notes to take from the win at Dallas and there will be just as many to take from Saturday’s game at Chicago. One of those is the improvement of the D-line.
In the first quarter (meaning with the starters on both teams) the Raiders got after Tony Romo and didn’t allow a run longer than five yards. Most of that was with a four man rush.
The credit can go to a few people. One, Mike Waufle who returned to Oakland after five years with the Giants as D-line coach. Another is Richard Seymour who moved inside to tackle and the results are instantly better.
But two young men that deserve the most credit are DE’s Lamarr Houston and Matt Shaugnessy. They both recorded two sacks each in the first half.
With Houston, the question was how can he switch from tackle to end and with Shaugnessy it was can he start?
They both quickly responded with a “damn right we can!”
With the improved pass rush and run defense that allowed one run of five yards (Marion Barber) the Raiders defense held the dangerous Dallas offense to three points in the first half.
With that kind of shut down defense, the Raiders will be able to stay in games with offensive struggles and win games by scoring maybe 10 or 14 points.
We should expect more of our offense, but it’s a good insurance policy to have that defense.
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In a decision that surprised few, Brett Favre announced today that he would return to the Minnesota Vikings for what he called his final season.
It makes sense for Favre to return.
The Vikings were a Super Bowl contender last season before losing to the Saints in the NFC Championship game, and return with similar championship potential in 2010.
Returning to Minnesota certainly gives Favre the opportunity to end his career on a high note. And there’s little doubt that he can do it. Favre had one of his best seasons in 2009, setting career highs in completion percentage (68.4) and quarterback rating (107.2.)
He also threw for 4,202 yards and and 33 touchdowns, with only seven interceptions.
By coming back Favre also will pocket $16.5 million, a figure that could reach $20 million if he meets each bonus requirement. Although he has all the money he will ever need by now, a few exta million certainly never hurts.
So why should he have stayed away?
The answer is that Favre is establishing a dangerous precedent–not just for football, but for all professional sports.
We have seen this act played out before–with Roger Clemens. Clemens, at the tail end of his career, decided he was tired of enduring an entire regular season but that he wasn’t tired of collecting huge paychecks.
So Clemens did what anybody in his position would’ve done. He sat out spring training and saved his arm for the stretch run and the playoffs, while still earning millions. There would’ve been no shortage of teams interested in his services had he decided to leave Houston.
Had Clemens’ name not surfaced around the steroid scandal, he’d probably be still doing it.
Favre is essentially doing the same thing. He may be committing himself to a playoff run, but there is nothing stopping him from skipping the preseason and even the first few weeks of the regular season. The money is on the table regardless of when he decides to take it.
Make no mistake–other athletes will begin copying Favre and Clemens.
Do you think LeBron James won’t look to extend his career into his 40′s by signing late season contracts just to play in the playoffs?
What about Alex Rodriguez? Why ever retire?
This is bad news for professional sports. Yes, we get to see our favorite players play longer; but at what cost?
Allowing players to sign midseason contracts severely handicaps teams and destroys parity. Teams must reserve salary cap space to give them the opportunity to sign one of these players, meaning they won’t be able to spend that money to address other roster needs. For the teams that miss out on signing one of these players, that becomes unutlized money.
In leagues like MLB that don’t have a salary cap, teams with more payroll flexibility are going to be able to able to swipe all of the players. The Yankees are already doing this to an extent in free agency. Imagine if they’re suddenly allowed to bid on a who’s who list of former greats.
There would be no stopping them.
Favre signed a two-year contract in 2009 and, to his credit, he is honoring it. But he needs to stay retired after this season. He needs to stop holding the Vikings franchise hostage. Players already look up to Favre.
We can only hope they won’t follow his example.
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Here are 75 Predictions for the NFL Season. I’m standing behind all of these predictions, and at the end of the season, I’m going to check myself.
Fill free to list your own predictions at the bottom of the list.
1. Chad Henne throws for 25+ touchdowns
2. Miami beats the New York Jets twice
3. Jets fall to 7-9 and miss the playoffs
4. Miami and New England split their games
5. Miami wins the division; New England gets the Wild Card
6. Louisville QB Brian Brohm starts for Buffalo at some point this season and plays well
7. It doesn’t matter, Buffalo falls to 3-13, get a top three pick, and gear up to take a QB next April
8. Fred Jackson rushes for 1000+ yards and five touchdowns
9. CJ Spiller is underwhelming
10. Joe Flacco becomes the best QB in the AFC North
11. Anquan Boldin doesn’t stay healthy, but still records 1000+ yards
12. Ray Rice tops 2000 total yards
13. Baltimore wins the division over Cincinnati
14. There is no more entertaining team than Cincinnati; they get the final wild card spot
15. Pittsburgh wins three out of the six games that Byron Leftwich starts, but still miss the playoffs
16. Cleveland improves to 5-11
17. Indianapolis locks up the division in week 12
18. Reggie Wayne takes a step back; Pierre Garcon takes two steps forward
19. Houston, once again, underwhelms their fans and the rest of the football world, missing the playoffs
20. Matt Schaub misses at least one game because of injury
21. RB Arian Foster finishes in the top 10 in rushing.
22. Chris Johnson tops out around 1500 rushing yards, 800 receiving yards
23. Vince Young plays well enough to get the Titans close, but they don’t make the playoffs.
24. Maurice Jones-Drew breaks down.
25. David Garrard plays poorly enough that he is replaced for next season.
26. Jacksonville underperforms and ownership starts to seriously contemplate moving the team.
27. Kansas City wins the AFC West
28. Eric Berry is Defensive Rookie of the Year
29. Kansas City leads the league in running the ball
30. San Diego Chargers miss the playoffs.
31. Oakland Raiders improve on their record from last year.
32. Jason Campbell becomes a Pro Bowl quarterback.
33. Denver Broncos don’t win more then five games.
34. Tim Tebow is the starting quarterback by week 10.
35. McDaniels is fired at the end of the season.
36. Knowshon Moreno proves to be a huge bust at running back.
37. The New York Giants win the NFC East
38. Hakeem Nicks is the leading wide receiver on the team and makes the Pro Bowl.
39. Ahmad Bradshaw rushes for 1000+ yards; Brandon Jacobs doesn’t.
40. Kevin Kolb throws for 25+ touchdowns and 20+ interceptions.
41. Philadelphia has a winning season, but they do not make the playoffs.
42. Dallas Cowboys get the final wild card spot on the final day of the season.
43. Felix Jones misses at least eight games due to injury.
44. Washington Redskins finish below .500.
45. Donovan McNabb has the worst stats out of every quarterback in the NFC East.
46. Albert Haynesworth records fewer than 30 tackles.
47. Green Bay Packers win the division and represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.
48. Aaron Rodgers is the NFL’s MV
49. Jay Cutler figures it out, and Chicago grabs a Wild Card spot.
50. With Julius Peppers’ arrival and the return of Brian Urlacher, the Bears have the best defense in the division.
51. Matt Forte tops 1500 total yards.
52. Brett Favre underperforms and doesn’t finish out the season due to injury.
53. Adrian Peterson cuts back on his fumbles but finishes fifth in rushing
54. The Detroit Lions win six games.
55. Jahvid Best outperforms every running back in the division.
56. New Orleans doesn’t make the playoffs behind Brees’ subpar season.
56. Atlanta Falcons make the playoffs and grab the second seed in the conference.
57. Tampa Bay outperforms last season and finishes in third place in the division.
58. The “Josh Freeman to Mike Williams and Arrelious Benn” hookup has shockingly good results.
59. Carolina finishes last in the division despite winning seven games.
60. Jimmy Clausen is starting by week eight, and plays well to finish out the season.
61. Matt Leinart leads Arizona to the playoffs in his first full year as a starter.
62. Steve Breaston and Larry Fitzgerald combine to form the top receiving tandem in their division.
63. Michael Crabtree suffers from a bad quarterback and puts up weak numbers; Vernon Davis falls back to earth.
64. Frank Gore misses at least four games due to injury.
65. Seattle wide receiver Mike Williams enjoys a good comeback season and catches eight touchdowns.
66. Charlie Whitehurst is starting by week eight.
67. Seattle wins six games in Pete Carroll’s first year.
68. LB Aaron Curry breaks out.
69. St. Louis is once again selecting in the top five in 2011
70. Sam Bradford starts in week 12 of this season.
71. The wild cards are Cincinnati, New England, Chicago, and Dallas
72. The AFC division winners are Miami, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Kansas City
73. NFC division winners are New York Giants, Green Bay, Atlanta, and Arizona
74. Baltimore over New England; Atlanta over Green Bay in the conference games
75. Baltimore beats Atlanta in the Super Bowl
Also remember that I do a Friday mailbag. Email questions to sherwoodanderson@rocketmail (or league them on my page) and they might, just might, make the cut.
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