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NFL Super Bowl 2009 Sports News | November 7, 2008
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Mailbag: Playing so-so a no-no
By Woody Paige, The Denver Post
November 5, 2008
Rich from Colo. Springs laments mediocrity in Denver's pro sports
Woody - I just finished watching another horrible game by the Broncos and then followed that up with the Sharks-Avs game. Each of the four major pro franchises in Denver is underachieving. Which franchise will be first to throw off the shackles of ineptitude?
-- Rich, Colorado Springs
Rich - Interesting. Let me go in reverse order.
The Rockies won't. They're getting rid of players, and they're whining again about being a mid-market team, whatever that is. When they were selling out, nobody there talked about not making money. They talked about leading the league in attendance. As far as I can tell, from Major League Baseball revenue and ticket sales, and revenue sharing, etc., the Rockies are in the black every year. Even if they aren't, the Monforts have spent maybe $150 million as their part of the ownership group and to buy out other owners, and the franchise is valued at about $800 million.
Here's a bad analogy, given the economic state of the country, but it's the best I can do: If you, Rich, buy a house for $150,000, and you spend, say, $10,000 a year for electric, painting, clean-up, fix-up, and 15 years later, your house is worth a million dollars, you have significantly improved your investment. The Rockies never mention that the value of the franchise goes up every year, and they could sell and make a
tremendous profit. They'd rather say, "Poor us." The Rockies will be just as bad next year.
The Avalanche made a mistake with Tony Granato, and the Avs are making a mistake with their starting goaltender, and they've made some bad personnel decisions. I suppose if Peter Forsberg is able to come back, they would improve, but this looks to me like a non-playoff team.
The Broncos have to win at least five games the rest of the season to make the playoffs. I don't see it now. I was wrong about them. This is an 8-8 team, I feel, because Atlanta is better than everyone thought, and Buffalo is a good team, and the Jets have Brett Favre and are in the hunt, and I'm not certain about Cleveland. They'll beat Oakland and K.C., but this team isn't breaking any shackles this year.
Which leaves the Nuggets.
I checked a website which has writers I believe in, and they all upgraded the Nuggets to a playoff team after the Allen Iverson-Chauncey Billups trade. They're better now. They need one more player, and Antonio McDyess would have helped, but he feels he was burned (twice) in Denver and will never come back here. We once lived in the same building, and he felt like he made the decision to come back here and help the franchise, and the franchise turned on him. They still need a rebounder. But I think they'll be good enough to slide
into the playoffs, and if they get somebody other than the Lakers or New Orleans or the Jazz or the Spurs or the Rockets, they could win a series. But they won't get anybody but one of those teams.
To answer your question, nobody. Go, Air Force
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News Archive Index: 2009, 2008
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Oakland Raiders: Just wince, baby!
By Sam Farmer
November 5, 2008
When Al Davis fired coach Lane Kiffin just four games into the season, one of the things the Raiders owner complained about was Kiffin's inability to put points on the scoreboard.
Now, the Raiders might look at the Kiffin era as the good old days.
Under Kiffin this season, Oakland averaged 19.5 points a game. In four games under replacement Coach Tom Cable, the Raiders have averaged 7.2.
The latest Raiders news is their decision to release big-money cornerback DeAngelo Hall just eight games into his first season with the team. I understand the concept of cutting your losses, it's just that Davis typically hangs onto players too long, especially if they seem to embrace the Raiders way. Over the years, players have quietly called that being on scholarship. Well, Al did dump Randy Moss pretty quickly, but that didn't work out so well.
Back to Hall. The Raiders gave up a ton for him -- a second-round pick in last spring's draft, and a fifth-rounder in 2009. And remember, that wasn't just a run-of-the-mill second-rounder but the 34th overall selection, almost like a late first-rounder. (Atlanta wound up trading that to Washington -- where, incidentally, Hall could wind up -- and the Redskins used it on Michigan State receiver Devin Thomas.)
The decision to drop Hall didn't sit so well with at least two of his teammates. According to
Jerry McDonald's must-read Raiders blog on the Oakland Tribune's website, cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and safety Gibril Wilson were not happy at all about the move and told reporters so Wednesday after practice.
"He had eight games to prove himself which is what really got me," said Asomugha, whom the Raiders had best not alienate if they want to sign him to a long-term deal. "I was sitting at home last night, watching the election and all that and excited, and then he calls me, hurt. He wanted to finish out the season here and he told me he was getting cut and it was just shocking. I couldn't make any sense of it. He had eight games to prove himself. I don't think that was enough.
"I do know that guys, after seeing that, it's not one of those things that is making guys go out and want to play harder. It's one of those things that guys are looking at like, `I could be next, so let me not make a mistake.' That's a difficult thing to play with on Sundays."
Cable said the message he wants to send is the Raiders are serious about the second half of the season. But that's not how Wilson reads it.
"It's almost like we're throwing in the towel," the safety said. "We have eight games to go and we're two games down in the division. All we need to do is get on a roll in November and the next thing you know we're back in this thing."
Wilson knows how teams can come back to life. He played for the left-for-dead New York Giants last season, and they won the Super Bowl
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