Sports Chowdah Update- We're No Saints, NFL Hands Down Sanctions to New Orleans Over Bounties; C's Buck Milwaukee's Win Streak; B's Tank in San Jose

NFL- The league announced this week that Commissioner Roger Goodell handed down a 1-year suspension for New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton as a result of a 'bounty' program among the team's defensive players and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams between 2009 and 2011.

Williams has been suspended indefinitely by the NFL while Saints GM Mickey Loomis received an 8-game suspension and assistant coach Joe Vitt was suspended for 6 games.

Goodell also fined the Saints organization $500,000 and the team forfeits their 2-nd round draft picks for this year and 2013.

The bounty program dates back to their 2009 championship season where defensive players and Williams would award players cash prizes for hits on opposing players from a pool that was said to be as much as $50,000. Knocking an opposing player out of the game or injuring him to the point where they had to be carted off the field was reportedly worth $1000 to $1500. The first year New Orleans was thought to have the bounty program the Saints faced QBs Kurt Warner, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning in the postseason as well as Tom Brady in the regular season.


OTHER NFL NEWS- Shortly after Peyton Manning was introduced as the Broncos newest quarterback in a press conference on Wednesday, Denver announced a trade that sent Broncos QB Tim Tebow to New York Jets in exchange for a 4th round draft pick. For a few hours on Thursday, reports were circulating that the deal between the Broncos and Jets had hit a contractual snag and Denver was instead negotiating with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but the announcement was made official later on that day.

Tebow's arrival in New Jersey [seriously- the Jets and Giants should drop their 'New York' prefixes if they keep playing their home games in New Jersey. Right now, the Buffalo Bills are the ONLY NFL team that plays their home games in the state of New York- NANESB!] has fuelled speculation over the future of Jets QB Mark Sanchez. However, New York Jets head toe sucker coach Rex Ryan issued a statement on Friday reiterating that Sanchez would remain the Jets starter heading into the 2012 season.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- Free agent RB Ben Javus Green-Ellis signed a 3-year deal with the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday. Green-Ellis appeared in all 19 games of the Patriot's season last year and had 11 TDs and 667 rushing yards for the 2011 season.

As the law offices of Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis leave, the Patriots have signed free agent WRs Brandon Lloyd and Donte Stallworth while agreeing to a 1-year contract extension with Deion Branch.

Stallworth arrives from the Washington Redskins with 309 yards and 15 TDs in 11 games for the 2011 season while Brandon Lloyd split time between the Denver Broncos and St Louis Rams last year. Between the two clubs, Lloyd appeared in 15 games with 70 catches and 966 yards.


OTHER PATRIOTS NEWS- Former New England Patriots and New York Giants head coach Ron Erhardt passed away at the ago of 80 at his home in Boca Raton, FL on Wednesday.

Born and raised in North Dakota, Erhardt was North Dakota State's head coach, winning a number of NCAA Division II titles before he started out in the NFL with New England as a backfield coach in 1973. Erhardt retained that position until 1978 when he was promoted to head coach by then-owner Bill Sullivan after then-head coach Chuck Fairbanks was suspended by management for breach of contract after he agreed to serve as head coach at the University of Colorado.

Ernardt led the Patriots to a 9-7 record in 1979 and a 10-6 record in 1n the 1980 season, but missed the playoffs both years. Erhardt was dismissed after a dismal 2-14 campaign in 1981. The following season, he was hired as the Giant's offensive coordinator. He remained in that position with the Giants during their championship Run in Super Bowl XXI and Superbowl XXV.

After Giants Head Coach Bill Parcells retired [the first retirement of many, as it turned out- NANESB!] from the Giants in 1990, Erhardt left New York for Pittsburgh to become the Steelers offensive coordinator through 1996. He then briefly returned to the Meadowlands in 1998 for a 1 year stint as head co-ordinator during the Jets disastrous 1996 campaign where they had a 1-15 season before announcing his retirement.

NBA- The Celtics have won their second straight game on Thursday night, beating the Milwaukee Bucks by a 100-91 final. Paul Pierce led the scoring for Boston on Thursday with 25 points along with 9 rebounds and 2 assists. Kevin Garnett had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists while Mickael Pietrus came off the bench for 13 points.

Boston's win snaps a 6-game win streak by the Milwaukee Bucks and puts the C's in good position for their Friday night matchup against the division-leading 76ers. Currently Boston is a half game behind Philadelphia for first place in the Atlantic conference.

Friday night's game gets underway in Philly at 8:00 PM ET and will be nationally televised on ESPN.

BOSTON BRUINS- The San Jose Sharks jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the first of last night's game against the Boston Bruins thanks to a Joel Pavelski tally less than 4 minutes into the first. San Jose's Daniel Winnik made it a 2-0 game early in the third before Zdeno Chara got the Bruins on the board with just under five minutes remaining in regulation. However, Boston wasn't able to get anything else past netminder Antti Niemi and the Sharks hang on to win by a 2-1 final.

Tim Thomas stopped 25 of 27 shots faced and Niemi turned aside all but one of the 17 shots he faced. Neither team capitalized on their lone power play opportunity in Thursday night's game.

The Bruins West Coast road trip continues through Southern California this weekend as they play back-to-back games in Los Angeles and Anaheim. On Saturday night, the Bruins will take on the Kings at LA's Staples Center at 9:00 PM ET, 6:00 Pacific in a game that will be televised on NESN and the NHL Network.

For Sunday, the Bruins will travel down the I-5 to Anaheim to take on the Ducks at 8:00 ET, 5:00 Pacific. That game will be televised on NESN as well.

Weekend Sports Chowdah Updat- 8 is Enough? Celtics Buck Trend; BC, UConn Football 2011 Schedule Released

NHL: Like it or not, all good things must come to an end. And although they wouldn't come away from Saturday night's game empty-handed, the Bruins 7-game win streak has come to a close against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

After a scoreless 1st period, Zdeno Chara would get the scoring underway 7 and a half minutes into the 2nd period, beating Marc-Andre Fleury to put Boston up 1-0. However, the Penguins would come right back with a pair of goals a minute and ten seconds apart to put Pittsburgh up 2-1. David Krejci would get the equalizer with 33 seconds remaining in regulation after the Bruins pulled Thomas for an extra attacker.

However, the Pens would capitalize on a Dennis Seidenberg turnover and C Dustin Jeffery got the game winning tally 1:52 into OT for the win. Boston gets the one point for forcing OT, so their point streak continues through at least 8 games, but that's the end of their impressive 7 game win streak.

Tim Thomas stopped 36 of 39 shots while Pittsbugh's Marc Andre Fleury turned aside 29 of 31 shots faced on the night.

Boston's next game will be a rematch of last month's feisty, high scoring affair versus Montreal. This will take place at Montreal on Tuesday night, 7:30 PM ET on NESN. The Canadiens are riding a 4-game win streak coming into the Tuesday night game, having downed Tampa Bay by a 4-2 final on Saturday.
NBA: After a 107-103 win against the Golden State Warriors at the Garden on Friday night, the C's embarked on a quick 1-game road trip to Milwaukee for a Sunday night game televised on ESPN.

Although trailing at the half 43-49 (including being held to only 16 points in the 2nd quarter), the C's would come back and outscore the Bucks 46-34 in the second half to win by the final of 89-83. Paul Pierce led the scoring with 23 points as well as 5 rebounds while Kevin Garnett had 14 points and 11 rebounds.

The C's next game will be at home against the LA Clippers on Wednesday night at 7:30 PM ET on Comcast New England.

OTHER CELTICS NEWS: Interestingly, only 9 players were in uniform for Boston on Sunday night [same w/Milwaukee, but this isn't Not Another Milwaukee Sports Blog- NANESB!]. According to head coach Doc Rivers, Delonte West is likely to return in time for Wednesday's game against the Clippers, but Shaquille O'Neal's return is unlikely.

MLB: While the Red Sox were vicorious in their Friday night spring training game against the NY Yankees, the Red Sox haven't won a game since, falling to the Florida Marlings by an 11-2 margin and reaching a 4-4 deadlock with the Orioles in split squad action on Saturday and losing to the Mets 5-6 on Sunday.

John Lackey will get the start at City of Palms park against Baltimore (or should I say half the Orioles, since they will be doing the split-squad thing) on Monday afternoon at 1:05 PM ET.

NCAA FOOTBALL: The 2011 football schedules for both Boston College and UConn were released towards the end of February. While the dates have pretty much been settled, the game times for the overwhelming majority remain up in the air.

The Boston College football schedule is as follows:

09/03/11 vs. Northwestern Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
09/10/11 at UCF Orlando, Fla. TBA
09/17/11 vs. Duke Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
09/24/11 vs. Massachusetts Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
10/01/11 vs. Wake Forest Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
10/08/11 at Clemson Clemson, S.C. TBA
10/22/11 at Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Va. TBA
10/29/11 at Maryland College Park, Md. TBA
11/03/11 vs. Florida State Chestnut Hill, Mass. 8:00 p.m. ET
11/12/11 vs. North Carolina State Chestnut Hill, Mass. TBA
11/19/11 at Notre Dame Notre Dame, Ind. TBA
11/26/11 at Miami Miami Gardens, Fla. TBA

The UConn football schedule is as follows:

09/01/11 vs. Fordham Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
09/10/11 at Vanderbilt Vanderbilt Stadium, Nashville, Tenn. TBA
09/16/11 vs. Iowa State Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. 8:00 p.m. ET
09/24/11 at Buffalo UB Stadium, Buffalo, N.Y. TBA
10/01/11 vs. Western Michigan Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
10/08/11 at West Virginia Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, WVa. TBA
10/15/11 vs. USF Rentscler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
10/26/11 at Pittsburgh Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, Pa. 8:00 p.m. ET
11/05/11 vs. Syracuse Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
11/19/11 vs. Louisville Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
11/26/11 vs. Rutgers Rentschler Field, East Hartford, Conn. TBA
12/03/11 at Cincinnati Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio TBA

Election Day Chowdah Update- Giant Wait Over; No Doubting Thomas; Moss on the Move Again

WORLD SERIES: A month after barely squeaking past his former team to win the NL West pennant, Bruce Bochy's San Francisco Giants are World Series Champions.

Unlike Game 1, The Cliff Lee-Tim Lincecum matchup on Monday night had both starters carrying a shutout into the 7th inning. In the top of the inning, Lee gave up back to back singles to Cody Ross and Juan Uribe but appeared to be working his way out of the two on/nobody out jam he found himself in after Aubrey Huff sac-bunted to move the runners over and Pat Burrell struck out. However, Edgar Renteria belted a 2-0 Lee offering into the stands at left center field to make it a 3-0 San Francisco lead.

Texas would get a run back in the bottom of the 7th with solo homer off the bat of Nelson Cruz, but Lincecum and closer Brian Wilson would shut them down to give San Francisco the 3-1 win, giving the Giants the World Series win, 4 games to 1 over the Rangers.

The San Francisco Giants had made three prior appearances in the World Series; 1962, 1989 [the earthquake series- NANESB!] and 2002- all of them losing efforts. This is the first World Series title for the baseball Giants since 1954, 4 years before the Giants and Dodgers moved out to the West Coast.

Monday night's win snapped the longest World Series drought (56 years) in the National League outside of the Windy City.

Sparky Anderson: 1934-2010

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: Former Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds manager Sparky Anderson has passed away at his Thousand Oaks, CA home on Thursday. With 1331 wins as Tiger's manager, Anderson was the all time leader in wins for Detroit and was at the helm from 1979 through 1995. Anderson also was manager for 'The Big Red Machine' in Cincinnati for their back to back World Series wins in 1975-76 and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.


NHL: The pessimist in me knows that Tim Thomas' white-hot start in net is too good to last, but I didn't think it would be this good to start off with.

Despite allowing more than one goal for the first time this season, the veteran keeper's streak continued through Wednesday night at Buffalo's HSCB Arena. And of course, lots of offense helps as well....and that's exactly what Thomas got.

The Bruins opened up the scoring with a shorthanded goal from Brad Marchand three and a half minutes into the first and was followed up with another shorthanded tally from Patrice Bergeron and an even-strength one from Blake Wheeler to make it a 3-0 game before the end of the 1st.

Michael Ryder made it a 4-0 game about 2 minutes into the 2nd before Buffalo got on the board with a power-play goal from Drew Stafford. Buffalo managed to cut the Bruins lead in half with an even-strength, unassisted Andrej Sekera goal in the third before Milan Lucic tallies an empty-netter for the 5-2 win.

The win brings Boston's record to 7-2-0, one point behind Montreal for first in the Northeast division. The Bruins will travel to Washington DC to take on the Caps on Friday night next.

NBA: You know, I hate to say it, but apparently Kevin Garnett is kind of a dick. Yeah, I know the NBA never had the reputation of being the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the first place, but good God, man....

After Tuesday night's 109-86 win at Detroit [between KG and Barney Frank, the Bay State seems to have cornered the market on sore winners this month- NANESB!] the C's travelled back to the Garden to host the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night. The Bucks forced overtime, where Paul Pierce was kept busy with 12 points and breaking the 20,000 career points milestone in Boston's 105-102 OT win. Pierce has 28 points altogether along with making all 11 free throws, getting 5 rebounds on the night and a pivotal steal late in the game.

The Celtics will next host the Chicago Bulls on Friday night- the game will be broadcast on ESPN at 8PM Eastern time.

NFL: Well, Randy Moss is on his third team in less than a month. The Tennessee Titans claimed the WR off of waivers after being cut by the Minnesota Vikings earlier this week. The Vikings acquired Moss from New England in October in exchange for a 3rd round draft pick.

Sports Chowdah Championship & Playoff Update Edition; B's Make History Shorthanded; C's Buck Losing Streak; Captain's Comeback; BC Badgers Wisconsin

They can't all be gems, which is all the more reason to enjoy days like today.

NHL: OK- this has to be seen to be believed...and since yours truly just figured out the magic of video embedding, have a look for yourselves [UPDATE! It's so awesome, I had to tweak this blog's format to accommodate the video- NANESB!].

The Bruins headed into today's game poised to clinch one of the final three playoff spots on the Eastern Conference. This afternoon, they hosted the Carolina Hurricanes at the Garden, and late in a scoreless 1st period, Matt Hunwick was sent to the sin bin for a hooking minor with 18 seconds remaining. Hunwick's penalty carried over into the second to give Carolina a 1:42 man advantage- in theory.

The Bruins would start the 2nd period getting goals from Daniel Paille, Blake Wheeler and Steve Begin in a span of 64 seconds- and all while Carolina was still on the power play! This would be the first time that an NHL team would score three shorthanded goals on the same penalty kill.

However, Carolina was determined to make a game of it and got on the board when Erik Cole scored on a wraparound with five and a half minutes left in the second and Patrick Dwyer's wrister from the slot beat Rask to make it a one-goal game with just over two and a half minutes remaining in the 2nd.

(John Wilcox/Boston Herald)

Early on in the third, Patrice Bergeron showed alot of hustle and saved the Bruins proverbial bacon when he raced back to an empty net to prevent an errant Blake Wheeler feed from becoming an own-goal. Rask was pulled when a delayed penalty was called against Carolina early in the 3rd and Wheeler tossed the puck back to the point while the defense was changing. The buck bounced off the boards and trickled towards the net with Bergeron racing seemingly out of nowhere to prevent it from crossing the goal line. Milan Lucic but the game out of reach with a minute left in the 3rd with an empty-netter to give Boston the 4-2 win, good for 89 points overall.

The Bruins win coupled with the Montreal's 3-4 Overtime loss to Toronto tonight clinches the #6 spot for Boston (regardless of what happens tomorrow in the game against Washington). The loss was Montreal's final regular season game. Tied at 86 points each, the Philadelphia Flyers and NY Rangers will go head-to-head tomorrow to determine who gets the final playoff spot in the east.
Elsewhere in the NHL: Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke got knocked the fuck out. Better late than never. Somebody get Atlanta's Evander Kane an Omaha Steaks gift basket.

NCAA MEN'S HOCKEY: Eagles goaltender John Muse led Boston College to a 5-0 shutout over the Wisconsin Badgers for the NCAA Men's Hockey Championship at Detroit's Ford Field on Saturday. Muse turned aside 20 shots, giving him an 8-0 record in the tournament over the past 3 seasons. Cam Atkinson got BC on the board first and had two tallies altogether.

The win gives BC it's second men's hockey title since 2008 and avenges the 2006 Championship loss to the Badgers. A record-setting crowd of 37,592 was on hand at Ford Field in Detroit, MI to watch the final.

MLB: After dropping Friday night's game at Kauffman stadium in Kansas City, the Red Sox were lookng to snap their 3 game losing streak as Josh Beckett was matched up against 2009 AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke. Saturday's game was noteworthy in that this was they first time we got to see Jason Varitek and Mike Lowell start, with both of them making the most of their appearances.

The Royals got on the board first with a Rick Ankiel RBI single in the bottom of the first. Jeremy Hermida and Jason Varitek managed to belt back to back solo homers off of the KC starter in the top of the 5th to take a 2-1 lead. Jacoby Ellsbury had a 1-out RBI double in the top of the 7th and Dustin Pedroia would get Ellsbury home on a sac-fly to put Boston up 4-2.

However, Kansas City would rally. Beckett would give up a leadoff double and single before KC would get a run on a double-play ball to start off the bottom of the 7th before Beckett, his teammates, Red Sox management and Red Sox Nation got a scare when a David De Jesus RBI line drive single grazed the back of Beckett's head (replay showed the ball changing direction). Beckett would escape any further damage on a Scott Podsednik groundout.

The Red Sox would go on to get some insurance on a Youkilis homerun in the top of the 8th and another solo homerun by Varitek and a 2 run homer off the bat of Dustin Pedroia.

Boston wins 8-3 and snaps their 3-game skid. Tomorrow's game will feature Clay Buccholz against Gil Meche before the Sox are slated to travel to the Twin Cities to christen Target Field on Monday (that matchhup is supposed to feature Jon Lester against Carl Pavano).

NBA: Fresh off their loss against the Washington Wizards, the Celtics bounced right back in a fairly ornery contest against Milwaukee Saturday night. Paul Pierce led the Celtics scoring with 24 points along with 6 rebounds in Boston's 105-90 win.

There's two games remaining in the C's regular season- a road game against Chicago and the final home game, which is against the Milwaukee Bucks again.