Newton puts past behind him, gets ready for future

All the controversy and all the questions about the future of Auburn's Cam Newton became the point of focus when Newton took the podium at the Scouting Combine Saturday afternoon. Newton was very poised (read: rehearsed); getting it down to the point of starting his 15 minutes in front of the media throng with an opening statement.

First and foremost, I understand that my obligation is to be the best possible football player I can be. I know and believe that. The recent comments that were made during the announcement of my recent endorsement partnership.

I was making the point that I want to be the best possible ambassador for them, just like I want to be the best possible ambassador for whatever team I'm lucky enough to play for. I'm excited to compete this week, and you will see me doing everything possible to become the best player I can possibly be.

I'm blessed to be in this situation, and I couldn't be in a better (place).

This was an obvious response to the recent statement to that he saw himself as an entertainer and an icon -- a concept that rubbed quite a few people the wrong way. Beyond that, the speech was about as antiseptic as you'd expect - and given the way Ryan Mallett failed to impress anyone who saw his podium appearance about an hour before, you can see why Newton went with the more refined approach.

Mallet looked like a guy who didn't care at all about what people thought of him ... and not in a good way. He walked off the stage after repeated questions about alleged drug use and other character concerns went unanswered. Newton looked like a guy who had gone through all the steps it takes to appear intense about correcting the issues that have some people looking at him sideways.

Newton also said that he's spoken to the Dallas Cowboys, kept answers about past "indiscretions" having to do with his father and alleged pay-for-play allegations to the scripted kind, and talked about what his combine process has been like so far.

"It was something where you had to question yourself as an athlete. I'm pretty sure that everyone in the combine was going through the same process, asking themselves questions, like, ‘Is this really what I want to do?' Because (in) each meeting, the horn blows, and that's the notice that you have two minutes left. And the coaches are asking you questions left and right. And as soon as that meeting is done, you shake hands and you get right out and you go to the next place. As soon as you walk to the next place, you do the same thing all over. But one thing I can say for each and every team is that they keep you on your toes, It's been somewhat fun for me to be eager to know and try and expect what the next team is going to say, or what they're going to have me do. It's been a fun experience so far."

Newton will get the full media car wash through the pre-draft process, and the only respite will be when he can get on the field here, at his Pro Day in March, and in individual workouts for teams later on. Beyond that, he'll be under surveillance in ways that few draft prospects have been - to the point that his ability to handle it will be a bit like a drill he needs to ace along the way.

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The NBPA supports the Wisconsin teachers' union

It's sometimes hard to believe, but there's an entire world outside of the NBA. For instance, did you know that Libya is in the midst of a revolution? I thought that place was just a genus of crabs!

On the domestic front, the whole of Wisconsin is up in arms about Governor Scott Walker's attempt to strip the state's teachers' union of its collective bargaining rights, ostensibly to get the state out of debt. It's an important fight for not just Wisconsin teachers, but the entire cause of American labor.

So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the National Basketball Players Association has come out in support of the teachers' struggle in Wisconsin. Here is the entirety of Friday's press release:

"Last night's vote by the Wisconsin Assembly was an attempt to undermine organized labor and the men and women across the country who depend on their unions for a voice in the workplace. The NBPA proudly supports our brothers and sisters in Wisconsin and their stand for unequivocal collective bargaining rights." -- Billy Hunter, NBPA Executive Director

"Wisconsin public-sector workers tirelessly deliver services on a daily basis to millions of Wisconsin residents. The right of these hard-working men and women to organize and bargain collectively is fundamental. Wisconsin's workers deserve better than last night's vote. Today, our union stands proudly with our fellow union members throughout the state as they continue their fight." -- Keyon Dooling, NBPA First Vice President, Milwaukee Bucks

At first glance, this show of solidarity might seem pretty ridiculous. After all, NBA players will fight the owners this summer to make many millions of dollars rather than many millions of dollars, whereas the loss of the Wisconsin teachers' collective bargaining rights effectively puts them at the mercy of the state. If a state-employed educator ever made the NBA's veteran minimum, then that person would soon after have to go back to the land of magical make-believe, because they would not exist.

But that doesn't mean that the NBA's union battle is somehow not serious. At any level of pay, employees gain more rights when unionized. That goes for millionaires as well as teachers who make $50k per year. When high-profile athletes support those in a much bigger union fight, it shows that all workers are in this fight together. That helps Mrs. Holstein in third-grade homeroom as well as Kobe Bryant.

Maybe the Wisconsin teachers will return the favor in July. If David Stern starts hanging out with Gov. Walker, you'll know something is up.

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Radek Dvorak, Dennis Wideman Traded by Panthers to Division Rivals

Filed under: Capitals, Panthers, Thrashers, Eastern, Trade Deadline

The Florida Panthers are sellers at the NHL's trade deadline.

The Panthers, last in the Southeast Division and sliding down the Eastern Conference standings, have dealt two more key players ahead of Monday's deadline. Both trades were made with Southeast Division rivals.

Forward Radek Dvorak was traded to Atlanta, while defenseman Dennis Wideman -- acquired just this past offseason from Boston in the Nathan Horton trade -- was sent to Washington.

 

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Florida has its young guns at quarterback. Is it willing to deploy them this fall?

Will Muschamp made no secret when he was hired to succeed Urban Meyer as Florida's head coach in December that his first act would be to dynamite the spread option attack that terrorized the SEC throughout Meyer's tenure in favor a "pro-style" system. Step one was hiring Charlie Weis from the pros as offensive coordinator. Step two: Convincing incumbent quarterback John Brantley to return for his fifth year after a disappointing debut in 2010. And step three: Ensuring that Brantley isn't the only viable option in the fall.

With today's signature from Palm Beach Gardens (Fla.) quarterback Jacoby Brissett – a priority for the new staff, after initially turning down Meyer's offer to join next year's recruiting class as a grayshirt – the Gators added two of the most sought-after quarterback prospects in the country to push Brantley right away. The other, Jeff Driskel, is already on campus, with designs on Brantley's job in spring practice. Brissett (right) will arrive in Gainesville in the fall. Both can already match Brantley's NFL size – Driskel is listed at 6-3/220 pounds; Brissett at 6-5/225 – and recruiting hype, with (allegedly) better athleticism. Both are fresh faces for an offense making an obvious attempt at a fresh start.

But does either have a legitimate shot to force Brantley out of one of the most high=profile positions in the country as a true freshman? First of all, your answer probably depends more on your assessment of Brantley than on the viability of the noobs.

On one hand, Brantley isn't an up-and-coming underclassmen with years ahead of him after some initial growing pains. He was a fourth-year junior who showed almost none of the alleged promise that made him one of the most coveted quarterback prospects in the country coming out of high school. He can't run (73 positive rushing yards for the year, not including sacks, on a long gain of 12), he's not a great decision maker (his 118.8 efficiency rating was 10th in the SEC among regular starters) and his 400-caliber arm supplied almost no firepower to speak of. In fact, Brantley finished dead last in the conference in both yards per completion (10.4) and completions covering at least 25 yards (9).

Pound for pound, Brantley posed the meekest threat to defenses of any starting quarterback in the conference, and of any Florida QB of the post-Spurrier decades, by far. In four of their five games against opponents that finished the season in the top 25, the Gators scored six points on two field goals against Alabama, seven points against Mississippi State, 14 points (including a kickoff return for a touchdown) against South Carolina and seven points against Florida State; in the fifth, the offense put three TDs on the board against LSU only by virtue of a pair of short-field starts in the red zone following Tiger turnovers.

By November, the offense was at least as effective in sporadic appearances by either of two jack-of-all-trades freshmen, Trey Burton and Jordan Reed, who were shuttled in an effort to rekindle the Tebow magic as runners. From the perspective of the new staff, though, that might have been a symptom of the real problem – namely, that Brantley was shoehorned into a system designed for a more mobile quarterback, under a coordinator, Steve Addazio, who had somehow managed to rein in Tebow's big-play tendencies in 2009, too. Addazio refused to change horses in midstream, even after it was obvious that a) Brantley was a nonentity when it came to the "option" part of the spread option, and b) It was getting him killed. Brantley spent the entire second half of the season "banged up,", and never looked like he was comfortably in control of the offense.

At worst, the oversight of a respected dropback teacher like Weis could still do for Brantley what it did for Tennessee's Jonathan Crompton, who rebounded from a catastrophe of a season on first-year offensive coordinator Dave Clawson's watch in 2008 to become a viable, productive starter under Lane Kiffin in 2009. Applied to Brantley, the same rate of improvement Crompton showed from his junior to senior years would make Brantley one of the most feared slingers in the SEC.

For anything less than that, though, a full-fledged reclamation project on a fifth-senior – especially at a program that won't stand for many mulligans between championships – may not make sense if Driskel or Brissett can take the reins without leading the offense into total disaster. Certainly Brantley didn't come back to finish his career on the bench, but why spend a year on trying to make Brantley above average in his swan song if it can be spent instead on getting one of the hotshot freshmen up to speed for much greater returns down the line? How much rope is the new staff willing to give to damaged goods?

With Driskel already in the mix, we may know by the end of the spring: If it's Brantley going into the summer, it's almost certainly going to Brantley well into the season, at minimum. If the competition remains open into the summer, start your engines. Unlike last year, when he was essentially the only true quarterback on the roster, Brantley's pole position isn't likely to mean much once the race is underway.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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Isiah Thomas approves this message

League-wide word tells us that Isiah Thomas might be the source of just about every Carmelo Anthony trade rumor you'll read today. He's clearly running the New York Knicks, as Adrian Wojnarowski pointed out Sunday, and the upcoming Worldwide Wes/Allan Houston vs. Isiah Thomas/James Dolan tug of war will undoubtedly keep us entertained for the next five years.

But while he's trying to broker every terrible trade this league has to offer, there is one thing Isiah may have forgotten. He coaches a college basketball team, down in Florida. Remember that? Florida International University. Shoes, jerseys, rims and everything.

And as the NBA attempts to swallow itself whole, with the Knicks leading things as they tend to do every February since 2001, it bears mentioning that Zeke might have to take the Bluetooth out long enough to actually coach a game.

Because Western Kentucky awaits:

While Western Kentucky awaits, Ball Don't Lie will wait. We're gearing up for the typical 47,000 trade anticipation/reaction posts that tend to pop up during trade deadline week, and on a night with no pro hoops to pour over, we're going to step back. Enjoy the Monday. Maybe read a book. Maybe finish a book. Find out what color our wife's hair is now. Eat dinner while sitting down. Answer emails from November. Shave. And then shave the rest after the wife complains about you "looking like the guy from Sparks."

So enjoy your holiday, NBA. It's a strange, and curiously productive Monday. No joke, but I've scheduled moving days on this day twice in the last 10 years. That's how special today is.

And when we awake? More trades, stretch runs, playoff seeding, buyout fun, and hoops, hoops, hoops.

Lucky us. I kind of wish there were games on Monday night. Isiah, is there anything you can do about that?

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Patty Mills talks about his controversial heritage

Blazers guard Patrick Mills is often described as the latest in a reasonably long line of Australian players in the NBA that includes Luc Longley, Andrew Bogut and Andrew Gaze. It's a new, growing hotbed for hoops products, and Mills is helping to raise the sport's profile in the country. Pretty soon the NBA will see its first kangaroo, or maybe even a really big chazwazer.

The reality of Mills' heritage is much more complicated, though. As noted in an excellent profile by Matt Calkins in The Columbian, the story of Mills' mother is tied to one of the most terrible moments in the history of Australia:

"Unless someone asks me, it's not a subject I talk about much," Mills said.

The subject pertains to his Indigenous Australian heritage, more specifically his Aboriginal mother, Yvonne, who as a 2-year-old was taken from her mother along with her older brother and three older sisters. The abduction was part of a national effort led by the Australian government and church missions to remove Indigenous Australian children from their homes and assimilate them into white culture.

It is now classified as "The Stolen Generation," and Yvonne was a textbook victim.

"That's the chip I carry on my shoulder," Mills continued. "Not just being an Indigenous Australian, but knowing that my mom's side of my family never got to see me play."

It's a terrific piece by Calkins, so please click on the link above to read the whole thing. You can also read more about the Stolen Generations here.

Too often, America fans assume that players from the same foreign country have similar backgrounds and a strong bond. But as Mills shows here -- and, more humorously, as Slovenians Sasha Vujacic and Goran Dragic demonstrate with their ongoing feud -- the history of these nations is just as complicated as that of the United States. There are civil wars -- as noted in the ESPN documentary "Once Brothers" about Serb Vlade Divac and Croat Drazen Petrovic -- and all manner of complicated domestic issues at play.

Mills can still act as a representative of Australian basketball -- in fact, his playing that role speaks to positive developments in the country. But Mills can also teach basketball fans around the world about the history of his country, which deserves to be known by as many people as possible. Ultimately, he'll not only make the case for Australian basketball, but prove that the nation's history isn't so different from our own.

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Video: Blake Griffin brings the laffs

In a few short months, Blake Griffin has become the hottest thing going in NBA circles by virtue of his rim-rattling dunks. His presence brings an electricity to arenas around the league, and he's made the Clippers relevant for the first time in years.

However, Griffin has a low profile off the court. Needing a dose of personality for his public image, Griffin partnered with MySpace Comedy for a series of interviews that bring you the man behind the dunks.

These are parody interviews, but they very clearly bring across what Griffin's like away from basketball. He's humble, friendly, and blessed with a pretty darn impressive sense of comedic timing. He's obviously patterned his style after Will Ferrell, but no one ever said influence is the same as stealing someone's style.

Check out the clip above and view the rest of the videos at MySpace. Social networking is the wave of the future!

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Why a hockey announcer suspended himself for homerism

The frustration was building in Mike Hickey's voice. Complaining about a dive by the visiting Topeka RoadRunners that he felt led to a needless penalty. Griping about rough play that targeted his Springfield Junior Blues. At one point, Hickey simply couldn't hold back any longer, screaming down to the ice:

"In the middle! With the long hair! Jerk! Greasy little punk!"

With Hickey's deep, bellowing voice, chances are many in the crowd at Saturday night's North American Hockey League (Jr. A) game at The Nelson Center in Springfield, Ill., heard him.

The problem? So did everyone watching a live stream of the Blues game online, which included a good number of RoadRunners fans.

That's because while Mike Hickey was acting like a passionate fan in the stands, he was actually the play-by-play announcer behind the microphone, broadcasting the action on the pay-per-view hockey site FastHockey.com, which carries NAHL games.

It was homerism in its rawest form. The viewers knew it, as RoadRunners fans emailed their team's front office to complain about the "greasy punk" comment -- which RoadRunners fans claimed was directed at their coach/GM Scott Langer -- and subsequent comments that called the franchise "disgusting" and the coach "a goon."

But Hickey knew it too, which led to a remarkable moment in his "coach's corner" video segment a day later: Hickey offered both a profuse apology and an announcement that he was stepping away from the broadcast booth for an undetermined period of time.

It's a video that's as emotional and memorable as any of his cheap seats taunts, but for completely different reasons.

Looking back at his behavior, it's easy to see why Hickey was professionally red-faced, even if nothing he said crossed lines of slander or bad taste.

Three minutes after the "greasy punk," Hickey let loose again on a non-call for holding:

"Oh, c'mon, you can't hold! [Silence] Oh, boy. That's one way to get around him: Hold your opponent until your teammate can get by. This game is deteriorating into a love-fest. Typical Topeka game. Let's go Blues."

The gripes continued through the end of the period, which featured a handful of brawls:

"We got another period of this. And with Topeka's history, it's only going to get worse. ...

"They're disgusting. You heard it here first. They're disgusting. But the Junior Blues will take care of business, I gar-run-tee."

With the teams in the dressing rooms and the microphone still on, Hickey could be heard saying the following to an unidentified woman:

"What a bunch of goons, starting with the head coach on down."

Chris Kolb, the business manager for the Junior Blues, said it was an emotional moment that got away from Hickey. "We all screw up sometimes. Say something you regret. Bite your tongue," he said.

On Monday, the indignation in Hickey's voice was replaced by that regret. His Coach's Corner program on UStream featured this statement (beginning at the 58-second mark; hit the smaller "play" button on the player below.):

Video streaming by Ustream

His comments, for the video impaired:

"During the Fasthockey broadcast on Saturday night, I usually have a very high standard that I operate by. Unfortunately, I crossed the line into an area that should have never been crossed. I'm a very passionate person about hockey and the Springfield Junior Blues. However, there is absolutely no excuse for my actions of Saturday night.

"Since that game, I've reflected, and I'm very remorseful, not only on what I said during the broadcast but also the lack of professionalism on my part. In a moment of stupidity, I said some very nasty things about coach Langer and the Topeka RoadRunners and their fans that are totally untrue. It's not what I believe about their coach or their organization. It showed a total lack of respect toward Topeka, coach Langer, and the very fine fans of that city. Not only did I disrespect them but, in doing so, I disrespected the Springfield Junior Blues, and I feel very badly about that. I've always held myself to a high standard. This time I didn't reach it.

"I'm ashamed of my idiotic and crass behavior, and I extend an apology to coach Langer and all concerned."

He went on to praise Langer's coaching record, apologize again and then said he would "step outside of the broadcast booth" for a time to reflect and refocus.

Kolb said the Junior Blues organization didn't pressure Hickey into making the statement, and that it was done independently. An NAHL official couldn't say if the league stepped in on the issue or not.

Kolb said that Hickey, who is around 67 years old, is a valuable member of the Junior Blues family. "Hickey's a great guy. He houses six of our players. His wife volunteers. He just got caught up in the game a little bit and it's blown out of proportion," he said.

He said the apology may have made a difference. "I got an email from someone [from Topeka] who watched the apology and said they understood," said Kolb.

Every franchise, in every town, in every sport has probably had a homer announcer pass through its booth; whether it's Jack Edwards mocking Flyers fans on a Boston Bruins broadcast or this guy (see second video) screaming from the broadcast table that the opposing goaltender is a "wuss" for not fighting.

But there's a difference between complaining about a dive (where Hickey started) and running down a coach and organization (where he ended).

It was a classless moment for Hickey. But in a culture that sees classless behavior unapologetically accepted or given a perfunctory request for forgiveness by those who cross the line, Hickey not only expressed heartfelt regret but took personal responsibility for his actions; and that apology from an embarrassed announcer will linger longer in the minds of fans more than any crass statement made in the heat of the moment.

Stick tap to Navyguy5735 for the tip.

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Scottie Upshall suspended 2 games for injurious hit vs. Flyers

Quite the heel turn for Scottie Upshall last night against his former team, the Philadelphia Flyers. The Phoenix Coyotes forward, well-liked during his time in Philly, drilled defenseman Oskars Bartulis with this hit in the second period; earning two minutes for boarding, boos from the Flyers fans and now a 2-game suspension from the NHL.

From the NHL

Phoenix Coyotes left wing Scottie Upshall has been suspended for two games and will forfeit $24,193.54 for an illegal hit delivered to Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Oskars Bartulis in NHL game #895 last night, the National Hockey League announced today. The incident occurred at 0:17 of the second period. Upshall hit an unsuspecting Bartulis, who was injured on the play. Upshall was assessed a minor penalty for boarding.

Upshall's fine is based on his average annual salary and is calculated under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund. Upshall will miss the Coyotes' next two games -- tonight at Tampa Bay and Friday at Columbus. He will be eligible to return Sunday at Chicago.

We imagine "who was injured on the play" was the operative phrase in this suspension, as that injury was a topic of conversation for the Flyers after their 3-2 overtime loss to the Coyotes.

From The 700 Level comes the he said/he said:

"You know I was just going hard to the net; I couldn't see where the puck was actually. I didn't intentionally go to hit him or drive him into the boards. I think he was kind of off balance," Upshall said about the hit. "It was just a routine shoulder-to-shoulder play going hard to the net and I hope he's alright." 

Paul Holmgren saw it differently, "You know, Oskars was just standing there minding his own business. It was a late hit but it depends on how Oskars is. I guess I have a little bit of a problem with it, yeah. It's not really like Scottie to do that, but things happen."

Upshall's correct that it's shoulder-to-shoulder and that the way Bartulis hit the boards caused the injury. But the hit nearly occurred after the second whistle; way late. (Didn't it almost look like Upshall was clearing the crease for Sergei Bobrovsky? Momentary lapse in loyalty?)

Do you agree or disagree with this one? Last night, he deserved more than two minutes for the lateness of the hit, that's for sure. Wonder if he would have gotten it, or a longer suspension, had he been wearing his old orange-and-black getup?

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Mark Cuban does not like the trade the NBA just made

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hates the deal that sent former Sacramento forward Carl Landry to the New Orleans Hornets for little-used second-year guard Marcus Thornton, and on paper, it's easy to see why. Because Cuban is not happy at the paper being transferred in this deal.

Because the Hornets are owned by the NBA, as the league struggles to find an ownership group that can guarantee the team's stay in Louisiana.

So any deal that Hornets GM Dell Demps puts together would have to be signed off upon by the NBA, but not by the league's 28 owners, even though they all have a financial stake in the Hornets. And this should help foster unending worries about behind-the-scenes machinations from the NBA.

And in a league where teams are ostensibly trying to save money and cut payroll in anticipation of labor negotiations taking place this summer between owners and players, the NBA-owned Hornets just did what Cuban claims no team wants to do right now. They sent Thornton to the Kings for a player making about four times what Thornton makes, taking in more salary while other teams are struggling to cut it, while owned by the NBA.

On paper, this reeks.

And I'll let Cuban vent from here. As initially reported on by NBA.com's Art Garcia:

"That's just wrong. That's just wrong. That's just absolutely, positively wrong," an incredulous Cuban said before tonight's Dallas-Utah game. "I'll probably go against the grain from everybody else, but that is so far wrong that it's not even close.

"There's so few teams in the league that can afford to do that and yet we're allowing a team that's owned by the league to do that?"

[...]

New Orleans is also a Southwest Division rival of Dallas and potential first-round playoff opponent.

Asked if there was any recourse with the league, Cuban said: "What am I gonna do? That's wrong. Beyond wrong."

This will no doubt be lapped up by all the cable shows on Thursday night, mainly because a league owning an NBA team is a novelty in itself, and every move leaves the league open for deserved scrutiny. Even on the other end -- the Sacramento Kings are struggling to fill their arena, hotshot guard Tyreke Evans is out for the next few weeks, and the NBA just sent Sacramento a replacement capable of averaging 20 points per game! Shenanigans!

Except, it's not.

Marcus Thornton makes around $760,000 this season, and he has been in New Orleans' doghouse since training camp. Most found this particularly unfair, as Thornton's iffy defense should in no way have precluded him from playing big minutes on a team that needed backcourt scoring (and, later, scoring from all over) desperately. But he was never going to play for the Hornets. Trading him was an unpopular move in New Orleans, to say the least, but the team wasn't going to fire Monty Williams 60 games into a season just to move Marcus Thornton back into the rotation.

So New Orleans traded Thornton for "a player making four times as much," as I wrote above. But "four times as much" for Landry is also around half the NBA's average salary, and Landry is not half of an average player. He's a year removed from being a certain Sixth Man of the Year candidate (before he was shipped to Sacramento), and he is at the very least a comparable player to Thornton. At best, he's superior, because scoring big forwards are so hard to find.

New Orleans wasn't going to use Thornton anyway, and they found a potential stand-in on the cheap for free-agent-to-be David West. And it's not like NOLA has to pay a ton of Landry's salary, because he's 70 percent of the season into a $3 million paycheck that the Kings picked up most of, and a free agent himself this summer.

Unless this is outright price gouging, Cuban has no complaint, here. Asking the NBA to force the Hornets to make pure dollar-for-dollar trades would be a dereliction of duty for the league that owns a team and is charged with keeping them competitive. Nothing was backhanded here, and though Cuban also doesn't like the cash considerations sent Sacramento's way, the bottom line is that both teams traded two players that they weren't using (Landry was buried in a deep Sacramento frontcourt) for players that they could badly use down the road.

And teams are taking on extra money these days, by the way. The Knicks just did it, sure, but the Toronto Raptors (struggling in the standings) also added more salary this week. So did the Cleveland Cavaliers, hardly the picture of smarts and potential. So did the Atlanta Hawks, a team that has struggled to sell tickets for decades, and one that may have more front-office red tape than the NBA and Pentagon combined. And then halved, sure, but you get my point.

Slippery slope argument from Mark? Maybe. Upset that a division rival just upgraded with a player they weren't using? Perhaps. Mark Cuban, on a treadmill before a game, just riffing? You bet.

Nothing to see here, move along.

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Doug Williams Going Back to Grambling, Leaving UFL Behind

At first glance, Doug Williams' return to Grambling State as head football coach seems like a great move for the longtime NFL quarterback and Super Bowl XXII Most Valuable Player.

It sounds like less than good news for the UFL, which Williams leaves after exactly eight months as the general manager of the Virginia Destroyers, the Norfolk-based team scheduled to begin play this fall.

The UFL announced Williams' departure Monday morning in a press release, in which Williams was quoted: "I was looking forward to working with the Destroyers, but this is a great opportunity for me and it is very rare that a father gets to coach his son at the college football level ... I went to school there, I coached there, and now I have a great opportunity to coach there again."

Williams' son, Doug III (known as D.J.), also a quarterback, committed to Grambling last month.

Grambling had been looking for a head coach since Rod Broadway left for North Carolina A&T earlier this month. Williams, who finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy race as a Grambling senior in 1977, replaced retiring Hall of Fame coach Eddie Robinson in 1998 and had a 52-18 record in six seasons. Grambling went 9-2 under Broadway last season.

Williams left the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' front office to become the UFL expansion team's general manager last June 21. In September, after speaking at a charity golf event in Norfolk to promote the team, Williams told FanHouse that he saw the job as the next logical step in his football career, in which he aspired to be in charge of an entire organization.

 

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Guillen threatens to 'rip' out Jenks' throat as argument escalates

The soap opera divorce between Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and right-hander Bobby Jenks — in which there seem to be only children and no parents — keeps deteriorating.

Guillen responded with a threat after Jenks recently made comments about one of Guillen's sons, along with the troubled relationship the manager has had with White Sox GM Ken Williams.

From the Chicago Tribune:

"I respect his wife. I respect his kids. I'm not even mad. I wish I was mad about it because I will rip his throat (out)," Guillen said.

OK, Dalton.

After the allusion to violence, Ozzie made a charge:

"Too bad that all the stuff we had between me and Kenny interrupted his career because he did a lot of bad things last year," Guillen quipped. "We lied for him, we protected him."

OK, let's refresh everyone on how this started.

Jenks saved 173 games for the White Sox from 2005-2010, but the club did not tender him a contract during the offseason. After he signed with the Red Sox, Jenks was critical of how the White Sox let him go. He also said, "I'm looking forward to playing for a manager who knows how to run a bullpen."

Oh, no, he di'n't.

The middle of Guillen's three sons — 25-year-old Oney — responded by using his Twitter account to blast Jenks personally. Jenks, not exactly known for his maturity at age 30, actually took the high road at first. But it didn't last.

Jenks told the Tribune on Thursday: "A lot of the stuff with Ozzie and the front office gets old. It has been a problem for a long time. It was a problem before last year. … It's going to be nice for me to see how things are done here."

Mild stuff. Until.

"Middle child syndrome,'' Jenks said [about Oney]. "I guess he needs attention."

Yeah, that makes three of you sometimes.

Of course, Ozzie couldn't let it go after Jenks implied the magic word: "Family."

"I'm the first manager in the history of baseball to give a guy a week off to take care of his kids when his father-in-law was sick. It wasn't even his wife, it even wasn't a (family) member. But it was out of respect I have for his family. I sent him home because he had to babysit his kids because his father-in-law was sick. I don't think any manager is doing that. But coming from him, I expect that."

Bottom of bus, meet Bobby.

"We don't miss him," Guillen said. "You ask 30 guys in there. By the way, I was asking for his phone number to talk him to about it, and nobody had his phone number. None of his (former) teammates had his phone number."

Possible hyperbole. Ozzie went back to imagining he was in a martial arts movie:

"Thank God he wasn't talking about the club. If Bobby was taking about the club, I would have been everywhere on ESPN because I will rip his guts. But he was talking about me. I can take that. Just be careful of what you say about Oney because Oney will say stuff he's not supposed to be saying. That's just a warning for him just in case somebody don't call him. Just stay away and don't name Oney for this because it will be pretty ugly." 

Will be? You guys are acting like you were raised by wolves. As amusing, even hilarious, as Guillen can be, he tends to veer off into emotionally raw rants that serve no useful purpose. 

The good news is, there's really not anything more to say. For the relationship to devolve any further, Ozzie will have to do as he threatens and rip out Jenks' throat.

OK, Motal Kombatants, FINISH HIM!

Follow Dave throughout spring training on Twitter — @AnswerDave — and check out the Stew on Facebook for more coverage.

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Video: The new MLB Network ad is all sorts of awesome

I often like to brag about my mad Photoshop skills, but this new commercial that just started airing on MLB Network is really something to write home about. Entitled "All In One Place," the spot utilizes some great trick editing to make it appear like baseball superstars from past and present are all sharing one field at the network's home studios.

From MLB PR:

Jackie Robinson walks out of the dugout; Sandy Koufax shakes hands with Walter Johnson while George Brett and Bob Gibson look on; Josh Hamilton talks with Willie Stargell and Lou Gehrig; Albert Pujols and Pedro Martinez walk with Juan Marichal.

"All in One Place" was produced by MLB Network's Creative Services team, who researched one thousand hours of archive footage to find the best clips of each player to include.

The care definitely shows and it's way cool to see everyone sharing the same place while they look like they're in their primes. It might be the most impressive collection of multi-generational talent in one spot since the Hall of Inaccurate Presidents, really.

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Days of NBA Lives: Wherein Kevin Durant must not like movies

 

At this point, seemingly half the NBA is on Twitter. It's a wild world of training updates, questions as to which movies they should go see, and explanations of their Call of Duty prowess. Every so often, though, you also get a picture into the more interesting aspects of NBA life. This feature is your window into that world.

LaMarcus Aldridge: Who said I don't want Marcus Camby on the team?! That's my guy he makes me better and the team!

Hassan Whiteside: I swear im goin to piss a happy meal off If Rihanna don't change that hair color I'm goin to lose it ..... lookin lik Ronald McDonald lol
 
Jeff Pendergraph: Anybody know if Lacey Chabert has a twitter? Trying to see if I can get a date lol

Brandon Jennings: The Knicks are Back, Miami Is Back, Bulls are Back, remind me of the 90's. Great For The NBA. If you ask me

Kevin Durant: Watching Dante's Peak...one of my favorite movies everrrr

You can also follow Eric Freeman on Twitter at @freemaneric.

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The 10-man rotation, starring an angry Marcus Camby

A look around the league and the web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: The Columbia. Marcus Camby does not want to be traded away from the Portland Trail Blazers.
PF: SB Nation. "The Prokorov forgives."
SF: Truth About It. Does Deron Williams go to New York next?
SG: Golf Digest. Jerry West's love of the links. Golf ones.
PG: ESPN Boston. Kevin Garnett is still an angry man.
6th: Hoopism. Comparing Jerry Sloan's time in Utah to the coaching machinations elsewhere in the NBA.
7th: The Hoop Doctors. Will the underrated Dwight Howard be in the Dunk Contest in 2012?
8th: NBA Playbook. If Carmelo is going to fit in New York, Mike D'Antoni will have to change his plays.
9th: TrueHoop. Maybe it's time to re-think the idea of Chris Paul in crunch time.
10th. Sports Radio Interviews. Dirk Nowitzki professes his love for In-N-Out burgers before pointing out that he "really doesn't know much about burgers."

Got a link or tip for Ball Don't Lie? Holler at me at KD_BDL_ED (at) yahoo.com, or follow me on Twitter.

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NHL Trade Deadline: Dallas Stars

Filed under: Stars, Trade Deadline

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The rock is Brad Richards, a rock-solid player, in terms of ability but not necessarily health. The hard place is Dallas, and Stars general manager Joe Nieuwendyk (photo right) is the man caught in the middle. As the trading deadline approaches, he is doomed if he does and almost doomed if he doesn't trade his superstar center.

If Nieuwendyk keeps Richards, he risks losing him for nothing to unrestricted free agency in July. After paying Richards millions and building the franchise around the Murray Harbour, P.E.I., native in recent seasons, the financially-strapped stars need to get something for him in order to remain competitive -- and financially-appealing while they are in the process of being sold.

On the other hand, if Nieuwendyk decides to move the superstar center, he could jeopardize the Stars' flickering playoff hopes -- presuming Richards can recover from his concussion in time. Another angle not widely considered: Nieuwendyk risks permanently disrupting his dynamic duo of Richards and Loui Eriksson, who were thriving as linemates before the center was concussed.

Richards considers himself and Richards to be two like-minded players who really think the game through. The chance to keep playing alongside Eriksson could sway his decision to stay in Dallas. Eriksson has also become one of the NHL's top scorers this season and might not be the same without Richards.

Nieuwendyk has stated repeatedly that he wants to keep Richards, but he also made it known recently that he will consider trade offers. It's only prudent - and safe - for a GM to consider both options. The salary cap is not really an issue right now, because Nieuwendyk has ample space, and he cleared more room by trading young forward James Neal to Pittsburgh.

 

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New York trades for Carmelo Anthony

Had the New York Knicks continued apace, the upcoming offseason would have seen the team with only around $40 million in payroll commitments for the 2011-12 season. This would have included promising center Timofey Mozgov, wingman Danilo Gallinari and solid point guard Raymond Felton. It would have been complicated, but the team could have signed Carmelo Anthony. And, depending on the rules of the new collective-bargaining agreement, it could have done it for a little more than half of what he's now set to earn next season.

As it stands now, the team will be on the hook for nearly $20 million more than the figure listed above. It will have Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony on the roster, which is nice, but the team will also be stuck paying Anthony a contract extension typical of the collective-bargaining agreements that were worked out between 1999 and 2005. By this time next season, Carmelo's extension will be an anachronism. That's not another word for "millstone," but it might as well be.

Congratulations are in order for the New York Knicks. They traded for a very famous player. They've done this before; many, many times. They've put together trades and signings like this for the last 25 years, from the Gulf-and-Western days right up to the Isiah Thomas-led James Dolan era. And be mindful of the fact that the Knicks are still in the Isiah Thomas-led James Dolan era.

The Knicks have now developed a one-two punch featuring Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, with Chauncey Billups running the show. This, in the absence of context, is a good thing. Billups still has game. Anthony is ultra-clutch. Stoudemire can dominate games on the offensive end. This is it, though.

Because New York has precious little options in place to improve the team. With Stoudemire, Anthony and Billups, the Knicks are now set to battle an aging (yet still championship-level) Boston squad, a growing Miami Heat team and a Bulls team that is clearly better than the sum of the Knicks' parts . Not terrible, but not on the level. Anthony and Chauncey did take a Nuggets team to the conference finals two years ago. Though Isiah obviously led the charge on this deal, this isn't an Isiah Thomas-styled franchise-killer.

But these are your Knicks, New York. And though Anthony will be an improvement over Gallinari, he won't help the team on the defensive end. He'll help the squad offensively, where the Knicks are ranked eighth overall, but that will only go so far. He won't help the team's interior defense, he won't help the squad's transition offense, and he won't help Chauncey Billups pretend that it's 2006 all over again. He will score over 20 points per game, sometimes he'll make more than half his shots, and in the 2013-14 season he will earn nearly half as much as the NBA salary cap is for that particular season. Again, it's not the trade, it's the extension.

Knicks fans -- and the New York-area columnists that double as mouthpieces for Isiah Thomas -- can prattle on all they want about how free agents will look past money from other outlets to come play for New York. Because of AAU history or the supposed love of Isiah's game, even if Isiah retired well before some upcoming free agents were even allowed to watch cable at night. What we do know now is that Anthony and Stoudemire could make about 80 percent of New York's cap-allowed payroll following this summer's lockout, and Billups won't help. Walsh put together a plan for the summer of 2012, and as it stands the Knicks will have just Stoudemire and Anthony on the books. But with those two set to make about $40 million combined on a salary cap that might only be around $48 million or so, what's the point?

And who's the point guard? Chris Paul? Because he liked Isiah when he was in diapers? Come on.

This is what happens when you let star-kissers run your team. The Knicks did terrifically well to offer an uninsured deal to Amar'e Stoudemire last summer, and he's clearly turned the team around. Twenty-five and 10 guys tend do that. And Carmelo? He is a star. He was on "Conan" Monday night. People know his name.

What they don't really know is his game. The talk of Anthony as a top-five talent in this league is absolutely ridiculous. Completely without merit. And the next time you're around a cable-level columnist that calls Carmelo a top-five player, shove Sunday's All-Star roster in his face and ask him to pick only four players in the NBA he'd take to start a team before he'd choose Carmelo.

***

I don't like to be an obscurant. I also abhor most pop culture references, mainly because I don't know half of the people that are referenced by the kids these days. But there is this line that keeps coming back to me the more I think and then write about Carmelo Anthony going to the New York Knicks.

"Shut up."

It's from a short film called "The H is O," which was put together by Adam McKay (a big NBA fan, by the way) 12 years ago. In it, Ben Stiller plays a lager-swilling, Maxim-reading yuppie who bragged about his ability to woo Glenn Frey, before being goaded into attempting to woo Glenn Frey. The Stiller character had no interest in Frey as a soulmate, much less lover, but the conquest was enough for him to try. Try he did, and succeed he did. And as he was surrounded by his mates the next day, as they carefully attempted to cheer him up by referencing the conquest, all Stiller's character could say in the wake of a night gone terribly wrong was "shut up."

This is where the Knicks are now. They will be better. They will be more fun to watch. Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups are better than Danilo Gallinari and Raymond Felton. This isn't a trade that pairs Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis. This isn't trading the next five years away for Eddy Curry. This is a good basketball deal.

It's also going to be the Knicks for a while. Because while Chris Paul might want out of New Orleans, he'll have to take a significant pay cut in order to play for New York a year and a half from now. Same goes for Dwight Howard or Deron Williams. The Knicks will have cap space in 2012, but they'll also have just two players under contract that will be earning about $40 million. This is not how championship rosters are created.

But they did it, man. They hooked up with Glenn Frey. The Knicks picked up a player that really, really wanted to be a Knick, and he happens to be a great scoring talent with a knack for coming through in the clutch. Chauncey Billups is in the deal, too.

Just enjoy this moment, New York. Because this moment doesn't promise anything beyond what it's already given you.

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Finally, a Notre Dame football player has upstaged 'Screech' in standup comedy

Jonas Gray, once hyped as one of the top running back prospects in the country, hasn't exactly lived up to the billing over his first three years at Notre Dame: Fumbles, injuries and a crowded depth chart have limited him to a paltry 75 carries and zero touchdowns with a single season left to make good on the advance billing. In the meantime, he's set out to make his name in South Bend in another, surprising arena: Outshining D-list celebrities as a fledgling stand-up comedian.

His first victim: Dustin "Screech" Diamond, the former king of teenage nerd camp – now the creatively and financially bankrupt king of desperate, unapologetic schlock – who was in town this week for a pair of shows at a local bar on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Gray, taking the stage for only the second time in his life, served as the opening act. And he put the foul-mouthed headliner to shame, if the South Bend Tribune does say so itself:

During a show at the reincarnated CJ's Pub, Gray upstaged headliner Dustin Diamond, the former "Saved By The Bell" staple (Screech) and antagonist from VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club."

"I'm not an a———," Diamond implored the crowd of the VH1 experience. "It was all scripted. They gave me $70,000 to do it. I'd eat a pile of —— for $70,000."

He then launched into about 39 additional minutes of material about body parts and bodily functions.

Gray's cache of comedy was far more diverse and certainly better received, and not just because he had the home-field advantage, with globs of Notre Dame football players pocking the crowd.

The Pontiac, Mich., product poked fun at -- among other things -- online dating, racial stereotypes, people with bad breath and, uh, tastefully, Irish head coach Brian Kelly, who was not in the audience.

"There wasn't anything that shocked me," Jerri Gray [his mother] said, "I thought he'd pick on me a little bit more."

OK, so he impressed a few teammates, a forgiving local newspaper reporter who obviously doesn't care for the "blue" material, and his mom. In comparison to a washed-up emblem of exploitive dreck who has gone out of his way to alienate everyone he's ever worked with. A positive review is a positive review. Everybody has to start somewhere.

In fact, the hardest part of going on stage for Gray was trying to generate publicity for his act within NCAA rules that explicitly prohibit using his name to promote anything that might make money for anyone. (Notre Dame athletics excepted, of course.) The club couldn't promote the act using Gray's name, jersey number or status as an Irish football player, a Facebook page set up for the show had to delete references to Gray, and media were restricted from writing about Gray's presence until the event – and the encore performance on Wednesday night – was over. If Gray was allowed to accept money, he didn't pursue it, "just to be on the safe side."

Obviously, no video or other visual documentation of the evening has surfaced, or it would be front and center here. (If you're like me, you're always game for a good "yo breath so stank" joke.) Anyone in possession of said evidence is encouraged to pass it along, especially if the "racial stereotypes" segment includes a "white people go like this/black people go like this" bit, because really, the classics never grow old, amiright? Is this thing on?

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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NHL Trade Deadline: Minnesota Wild

Filed under: Wild, Western, Trade Deadline

After a slow start to Todd Richards' second season as head coach, there was much consternation in Minnesota. Could the Wild -- a picture of management stability with Doug Risebrough and Jacques Lemaire running things from the franchise's birth -- be about to make another coaching change?

The players had other ideas. Buying into Richards' system and philosophy, the Wild could be on the verge of making the playoffs.

As of Friday morning, Minnesota sits in sixth place in the West, but just two points separate them from 11th place. With captain Mikko Koivu out with a broken finger, and power forward Guillaume Latendresse still on the mend, general manager Chuck Fletcher has to make a tough decision at the trade deadline.

He won't sell, but should he buy, or hold off on adding more salary to a team close to the cap?

 

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Meme Watch: Meet your first Pac-12 South favorite ... Arizona State?

Tracking the buzz of college football's hive mind.

If there's any team whose presence really sticks out like a sore thumb in those knee-jerk, "pre-preseason" polls that immediately followed the end of the season, it has to be Arizona State, especially relative to the rest of the their new division mates in the Pac-12 South. Barely a month removed from their straight non-winning season – an unremarkable stagger to 6-6 that didn't qualify ASU for a bowl game or a single vote in any of the final polls – the Devils showed up near the bottom of virtually every early top-25 effort last month. In every one of those cases, ASU was the top-ranked team in the South Division, and usually the only ranked team in the South Division.

That says a lot about the competition. Utah is an uncertain newcomer, and has to replace most of its defense. Arizona is rebuilding both its offensive and defensive lines, nearly in their entirety. Colorado and UCLA have shown no sign of snapping out of their continuing strings of mediocrity going into transition years to new schemes. USC is nowhere to be found in the early polls for the first time in nearly a decade. And even it was, pending the results of its appeal to the NCAA to lift the second postseason year of a two-year postseason ban, the Trojans are still ineligible to represent the division in the inaugural Pac-12 Championship Game in December.

The only team in the division riding an unambiguously upward trajectory into 2011 is Arizona State. In the first place, the Devils were closer than their 6-6 finish suggests to a breakthrough last year, when four of their six losses came by four points or less. That included one-point losses to USC and Rose Bowl-bound Wisconsin – both involving a blocked extra point that supplied the final margin – and a 17-13 loss to Orange Bowl-bound Stanford, a game ASU led with six minutes to play. They were also one of only two teams in the regular season (along with Cal) to keep the damage against Pac-10 overlord Oregon within two touchdowns.

In terms of on-field experience, Arizona State stepped into that cauldron as the greenest outfit in the Pac-10 at the start of the season, and came out of it as one of the most battle-hardened lineups in the country: Twenty-four Devils are back this fall after starting at least five games in 2010, 18 of whom will be seniors or fourth-year juniors. (Among that group is the best player on the team, fifth-year senior Omar Bolden, a unanimous all-conference pick at cornerback and a second-teamer as a return man last year.) Two of the up-and-comers, head-hunting linebacker Vontaze Burfict and freshman defensive lineman Junior Onyeali, anchored the middle of the best run defense in the conference and were honored with an All-Pac-10 nod and the league's Defensive Freshman of the Year award, respectively.

Personnel-wise, the worst you can say about the Devils' prospects is their lack of a notable playmaker on offense, despite cobbling together the Pac-10's No. 3 scoring offense last year at 32 points per game. There's still the ongoing quarterback issue between interception-prone senior Steven Threet and relatively inexperienced junior-to-be Brock Osweiler, who only supplanted Threet last year for the last two games (both ASU wins). And there's the fact that it's, you know, Arizona State, home of a single conference championship in the last 25 years and only two top-20 finishes in the last thirteen. It was only a little over a year ago that coach Dennis Erickson sounded like he wanted to quit in the waning weeks of a 4-8 flop in 2009. His charges have turned in losing records against the nine-game conference slate three years in a row.

If the soon-to-be 64-year-old is going to take another team around the corner before he's eligible to begin drawing Social Security, this is obviously the one, with a lineup composed overwhelmingly by Erickson's first two recruiting classes to Tempe in 2007 and 2008. This time next year, the prevailing theme will be the mass exodus of those seniors. If this outfit can't push through to the championship game with experience and a middling lineup of division rivals, it might well be another decade before the next opportunity cycles back around.

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Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

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The Shutdown 40: #19 - Torrey Smith, WR, Maryland

 

With the 2010 NFL season in the books, it's time to turn our eyes to the NFL draft, and the pre-draft evaluation process. Before the 2011 scouting combine begins on Feb. 24, we'll be taking a closer look at the 40 draft-eligible players who may be the biggest difference-makers when all is said and done.

We continue our series with Maryland wide receiver Torrey Smith. In three years and 37 games on the field with the Terrapins, Smith caught 150 passes for 2,205 yards and 19 touchdowns. He also returned 120 kickoffs for 2,939 yards and three touchdowns. Smith set the ACC career record for kick return yardage (2,983), and the single-season mark for receiving touchdowns at Maryland with 12. He also put up more total yards (5,183) than anyone in school history.

Pros: Runs as fast in a straight line as anyone in this draft class -- difficult for all but the quickest cornerbacks to trail on deep sideline routes. Smith has tremendous quickness to get past defenders and upfield when crossing and looking for openings on slants; it's tough for anyone to keep up with him in space. He's more susceptible to man coverage because he's not a developed route-runner, but he just blows through zones and becomes a real problem for teams looking to have their linebackers and backs move to and sit in areas.

Can turn the edge on the sideline and get vertical as quickly as you'd like. Impressive ability to time his jumps to catch the ball even when he's running full speed. Incendiary kick returner who set an ACC return-yardage record in 2008 and broke it in 2009. More physical than you might think given his size (6-foot-1, 205 pounds) and speed; he doesn't develop alligator arms in traffic and he can give a good stiffarm to get separation after the catch. Overcame a difficult childhood to gain his degree, and his coaches can't say enough good things about him.

Cons: Needs a lot of work on his routes -- especially those routes, like comebacks and digs, requiring tight and immediate cuts. Tends to round off his cuts and make those routes far less defined. Doesn't consistently turn quickly upfield after facing the quarterback on quick passes and can get poleaxed by oncoming defenders as a result.

Conclusion: As with most pure burner receivers, Smith got by with speed at the NCAA level, and he'll be asked to do more against better and more complex coverages in the NFL. But his straight-line speed isn't his only characteristic -- he's a somewhat physical player for his size and seems to have the physical talent to develop into a more polished route-runner -- some of his rudimentary skills in this area are simply because he could blast past people before. Smith is expected to run under 4.4 in the 40-yard dash, and if he matches his speed with a plus performance in all receiver drills, his spot as the third-most coveted receiver in this draft class behind A.J. Green and Julio Jones could be secured.

NFL Comparison: Jeremy Maclin, Philadelphia Eagles

More Shutdown 40
#40 -- Rodney Hudson, OG, Florida State | #39 - Luke Stocker, TE, Tennessee
 | #38 - Phil Taylor, DT, Baylor | #37 - Ryan Mallett, QB, Arkansas | #36 -- Leonard Hankerson, WR, Miami | #35 -- Danny Watkins, OL, Baylor | #34 - Stephen Paea, DT, Oregon State | #33 -- Christian Ponder, QB, Florida State | #32 - Mike Pouncey, OL, Florida | #31 - Nate Solder, OT, Colorado | #30 - Kyle Rudolph, TE, Notre Dame | #29 - Mikel Leshoure, RB, Illinois | #28 - Cameron Heyward, DE, Ohio State | #27 - Akeem Ayers, OLB, UCLA | #26 - Brandon Harris, CB, Miami | #25 - Gabe Carimi, OT, Wisconsin | #24 -- Jake Locker, QB, Washington| #23 -- Jimmy Smith, CB, Colorado| #22 - J.J. Watt, DE, Wisconsin | #21 - Corey Liuget, DT, Illinois| #20 - Derek Sherrod, OT, Mississippi State

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