Sports Chowdah on a Roll- Crawford Lands Deal w/Sox; B's Set Islanders Adrift; C's Get By 76ers on KG Move; Army/Navy Set to Clash; Feller in Hospice

This has been one of those weeks that I simply gotta savor as a New England sports fan, and the biggest news being made so far is by a team that won't play a regular season game for another five months.

RED SOX: Good Lord- Why stop with Adrian Gonzalez?

Wondering of the Red Sox had any more tricks up their sleeve for the MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, I headed off to bed assuming that Carl Crawford and the Angels were close to a terms on a contract. Then I woke up this morning to learn that free agent outfielder Carl Crawford signed a huge deal with the Red Sox.


The former Tampa Bay left fielder and the Red Sox had reportedly agreed to a preliminary deal for 7 years and reportedly worth $142 million. Crawford had a .307 BA last year while driving in 90 runs (and scoring another 110 himself) with 19 home runs and 47 stolen bases.

With 8 stolen bases and a .324 batting average against Boston, I would've been reasonably satisfied if Crawford was on his way out to the West Coast to face a team the Red Sox only face a few times in the regular season. Thanks to Theo playing it close to the vest, I wasn't even aware of the Red Sox and the extent of their interest in the speedy outfielder. Apparently this caught the rest of the league as well as the sports media off guard.

OTHER MLB NEWS: 92 year old Hall of Fame pitcher and former Cleveland Indian Bob Feller has been moved from the Cleveland Clinic to a hospice in the Cleveland area. Feller made his debut with the Indians in July 1936 and joined the US Navy the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After serving on the USS Alabama until 1944, Feller rejoined the Indians in 1945.

Feller retired in 1956 with 266 career wins, a career ERA of 3.25 and a total of 2,581 strikeouts. Six years later, Feller was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first year of eligibility and in 1995 the Bob Feller Museum opened up in the Hall of Famer's hometown of Van Meter, IA. Earlier this year, Feller was diagnosed with leukemia.

NFL: The Indianapolis Colts travelled to Nashville, TN to take on the struggling Tennessee Titans for this week's Thursday night game. The injury-depleted Colts had dropped three straight games against the Patriots, Chargers and Cowboys coming into the Thursday game, leading to all sorts of questions about the health of QB Peyton Manning as well as Indy's dimming playoff prospects with their 6-6 record.

The Titans were worse off, coming into Thursday night's game losing five in a row and roiled by injuries and very public infighting between QB Vince Young (now on the DL) and coach Jeff Fischer.

After going 25-35 with 319 yards and 2 TDs, including a 46 yard TD pass to WR Reggie Wayne, Manning demonstrated that the Colts weren't quite finished for the season in Indy's 30-28 win (it wasn't quite that close, as Titans QB Kerry Collins managed to find the end zone for a 3rd time as regulation expired). Presently, the Colts are a half game behind the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC South while the loss pretty much stuck a dagger in the Titan's season.

NHL: Sad to say, I completely missed Thursday night's Bruins home win against the NY Islanders- although I understand there was a Tukka Rask sighting.

The Bruins held off a 2nd period surge from the Islanders where they were outshot 17-9, but still managed to get a shorthanded goal off the stick of Brad Marchand and held on to a 2-1 lead heading to the second intermission.

In the 3rd, Micheal Ryder got what would prove to be the game-winner on a power play goal with about 5 minutes remaining, and while the Islanders would come right back to make it a 1-goal game less than 2 minutes later, Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron would put the game out of reach with two empty-netters of their own with less than two minutes left in the 3rd to give Boston the 5-2 win over the Islanders.

Tukka Rask and Rick DePietro each faced 35 shots on the night, with Rask stopping 33 (but not a penalty shot from Frans Nielsen, incidentally) and Lucic had two goals on the night.

I did catch the pretty awesome Tuesday night game against the Buffalo Sabres, including the extra 50 seconds of sudden death overtime after Mark Recchi scored the game-winning goal [seen at the 4:55 mark below].

Recchi's shot came in and out of the net so quickly, it's possible the officials assumed it had simply hit a crossbar, but it was reviewed during the next stoppage of play, which came some 49 seconds later. Recchi's power-play goal was made official and the Bruins won by a final of 3-2 in OT. Tim Thomas stopped 28 of 30 shots faced while Ryan Miller blocked 33 of 36 shots on the night.

The Bruins will next play host to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday Night at the Garden. The puck drops at 7PM ET, 4PM Pacific.

NBA: Well, much like tonight's Bruins game, I wasn't able to catch any of tonight's C's game either [TWO nationally televised Celtics games back to back? What are the odds!?- NANESB]. Looks like this one peaked late, though.

If the embedded video isn't working, you're missing Kevin Garnett bank in an alley-oop pass with only 1.4 seconds left in regulation to give the Celtics the 102-101 win over the 76ers for their 9th straight win on Thursday night.

I DID catch most of Wednesday Night's home game against the Denver Nuggets. They didn't bother playing Carmello Anthony, even though he appeared to be healthy, which no doubt fuelled more speculation that a trade from Denver was imminent.

The C's were up by as much as 19 in the first half, but the Mello-less Nuggets managed to chip away into the Boston lead, coming within one point of them before heading into the half trailing 52-59.

In the second half, Boston really began to pull away and win by a final of 105-89 and Denver head coach George Karl is still looking for career win #1,000.

The Celtics' road trip continues into the weekend with a swing through Charlotte, NC against the Bobcats on Saturday night- also at 7PM Eastern.

NCAA FOOTBALL: Well, we're down to one last regular season game this weekend, and that's the Army/Navy game at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia this Saturday at 2:30 PM ET. Interestingly, both teams head into Saturday's game already accepting invitations to Bowl Games. The Army Black Knights have a 6-5 record and will be taking on the Southern Methodist Mustangs in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth, TX on December 30 while the Navy Midshipmen sport an 8-3 record and will go up against the San Diego State Aztecs in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on December 23rd.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL: Florida head coach Urban Meyer, citing family concerns, announced his resignation on Wednesday afternoon. This comes after a fairly disappointing 7-5 season fir the Florida Gators. Meyer was hospitalized with chest pains after last year's SEC championship game against Alabama, but eventually decided to stay on through the 2010 season. There had been speculation that Florida was interested in Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen, but Mullen said he had no immediate plans to leave Mississippi State.

ACC: Nebraska's athletic director has denied reports that head coach Bo Pelini is a candidate to fill the coaching vacancy for the Miami Hurricanes. He told a Lincoln, NE newspaper that he neither gave Pelini permission to interview with Miami, nor had Pelini sought permission.

BOWL SCHEDULE: And here is the lineup of Bowl games for the next few weeks-

12/18
NEW MEXICO BOWL, Albuquerque, NM- BYU Cougars vs UTEP Miners; 2PM ET ESPN

HUMANITARIAN BOWL, Boise, ID- Northern Illinois Huskies vs Fresno State Buldogs; 5:30 PM ET ESPN

NEW ORLEANS BOWL, New Orleans, LA- Ohio Bobcats vs Troy Trojans; 9PM ET, ESPN

12/21
BEEF O'BRADY BOWL, St. Petersburgh, FL- Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles vs Louisville Cardinals; 8PM ET, ESPN


12/22
MAACO BOWL, Las Vegas, NV- #20 Utah Utes vs #10 Boise St. Broncos; 8PM ET, ESPN


12/23
POINSETTIA BOWL, San Diego, CA- San Diego St. Aztecs vs Navy Midshipmen; 8PM ET, ESPN


12/24
HAWAII BOWL, Honolulu, HI- #24 Hawaii Warriors vs Tulsa Golden Hurricanes; 8PM ET, ESPN

12/26
LITTLE CAESAR'S BOWL, Detroit, MI- Toledo Rockets vs Florida Int'l Golden Panthers; 8:30 PM ET, ESPN

12/27
INDEPENDENCE BOWL, Shreveport, LA- Air Force Falcons vs Georgia Tech Yellowjackets; 5PM ET, ESPN2

12/28
CHAMPS SPORTS BOWL, Orlando, FL- #22 West Virginia Mountaineers vs NC State Wolfpack; 6:30 PM ET, ESPN

INSIGHT BOWL, Tempe, AZ- #14 Missouri Tigers vs Iowa Hawkeyes; 10PM ET, ESPN

12/29
MILITARY BOWL, Washington DC- East Carolina Pirates vs Maryland Terrapins; 2:30PM ET, ESPN

TEXAS BOWL, Houston, TX- Illinois Illini vs Baylor Bears; 6PM ET, ESPN

VALERO ALAMO BOWL, San Antonio, TX- #16 Oklahoma St Cowbowys vs Arizona Wildcats; 9:15PM ET, ESPN

12/30
BELL ARMED FORCES BOWL, Ft. Worth, TX- Army Black Knights vs SMU Mustangs; 12:00PM ET, ESPN

NEW ERA PINSTRIPE BOWL, New York, NY- Kansas State Wildcats vs Syracuse Orangemen; 3:30PM ET, ESPN

MUSIC CITY BOWL, Nashville, TN- North Carolina Tarheels vs Tennessee Volunteers; 6:40PM ET, ESPN

HOLIDAY BOWL, San Diego, CA- #17 Nebraska Corhuskers vs Washington Huskies; 10:00PM ET, ESPN

12/31
MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL, Charlotte, NC- USF Bulls vs Clemson Tigers- 12:00PM ET, ESPN

SUN BOWL, El Paso, TX- Miami Hurricanes vs Notre Dame Fighting Irish; 2PM ET, CBS

LIBERTY BOWL, Memphis, TN- Georgia Bulldogs vs UCF Golden Knights; 3:30 PM ET, ESPN

CHICK FIL A BOWL, Atlanta, GA- #19 South Carolina Gamecocks vs #23 FSU Seminoles; 7:30 PM ET, ESPN

1/1
TICKET CITY BOWL, Dallas, TX- Northwestern Wildcats vs Texas Tech Red Raiders; 11:59AM ET, ESPNU

OUTBACK BOWL, Tampa, FL- Florida Gators vs Penn St Nittany Lions; 1PM ET, ESPN/ABC

CAPITAL ONE BOWL, Orlando, FL- #15 Alabama Crimson Tide vs #7 Michigan State Spartans; 1 PM ET, ESPN/ABC

GATOR BOWL, Jacksonville, FL- #21 Mississippi State Bulldogs vs Michigan Wolverines; 1:30PM ET, ESPN2

ROSE BOWL, Pasadena, CA- #4 Wisconsin Badgers vs #3 TCU Horned Frogs; 5PM ET, ESPN/ABC

FIESTA BOWL, Tempe, AZ- #25 UConn Huskies vs #9 Oklahoma Sooners; 8:30PM ET, ESPN

1/3
ORANGE BOWL, Miami Gardens, FL- #5 Stanford Cardinals vs #12 Virginia Tech Hokies; 8:30 PM ET, ESPN

1/4
SUGAR BOWL, New Orleans, LA- #6 Ohio State Buckeyes vs #8 Arkansas Razorbacks; 8:30PM ET, ESPN

1/6
GODADDY.COM BOWL, Mobile, AL- Middle Tenn St. Blue Raiders vs Miami (OH) Redhawks; 8PM ET, ESPN

1/7
COTTON BOWL, Arlington, TX- #11 LSU Tigers vs #18 Texas A&M Aggies; 8PM ET, FOX

1/8
BBVA COMPASS BOWL, Birmingham, AL- Pitt Panthers vs Kentucky Wildcats; 12PM ET, ESPN

1/9
KRAFT FIGHT HUNGER BOWL, San Francisco, CA- BC Eagles vs #13 Nevada Wolfpack; 9PM ET, ESPN

1/10

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, Glendale, AZ- #1 Auburn Tigers vs #2 Oregon Ducks; 8:30PM ET, ESPN