Covered in Spread: Week 14 Reacp/ Week 15 Picks

(courtesy of ESPN.com)

Week 14 consisted of a very solid performance for The Manchise against the spread.  Jerry finished with a record of 11-wins and 5-loses, and Jonah finished with 10-wins and 6-loses.  As you all know now that gives Jerry another win, making the weekly score 2-1 in favor of Jerry.  Jonah has an overall record of 27-19 (Week 12: 9-7, Week 13: 8-6, Week 14: 10-6) and Jerry has an overall record of 26-20 (Week 12: 10-6, Week 13: 5-9, Week 14: 11-5).  The poll to vote on what "Spread" you would like to see the loser covered in is on the right coloum so be sure to vote, and keep checking out the week by week lines to see who is winning.  The video of the loser being covered will be posted to our site!

So now that Week 14 is over, bring on the Week 15 lines.

Thursday Night:
Indianapolis Colts (-3) at Jacksonville Jaguars (+3):
Jonah- I do not condone gambling, unless you are betting on Peyton and the Colts.  I don't think there's a chance this game is within 3 points.

Jerry-Colts only by 3?  Even if Peyton doesn't play the entire game, the Jaguars are not that good.  So I will continue my trend of betting against the Jags.

The Rumor Mill: 12/17

(Picture from bases.newsvine.com)

MLB:

Matt Holliday- The Cardinals and Matt Holliday are standing firm on their offers, and not much progress has been made.  The offer is a 5-year deal worth about $16 million dollars a year.   The Cardinals have reason to believe that they are only betting against themselves despite rumors of other teams from the one, the only Scott Boras.  Well today Buster Olney confirmed that Boras might not be stretching the truth as usual.  He reported that in fact, the Red Sox would be interested in Holliday, but for less than what the Cardinals are offering.  Olney also wrote that the Mets are looking closely at the negotiations between the Cards and Holliday, but are not yet involved. 

Our Thoughts and Prayers to Chris Henry

(Picture from whodeybengals.com)

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry is battling for his life after reportedly falling out of the back of a pickup truck.  Police are describing it as a domestic dispute with his fiancee.  Here is a link to the full article at ESPN.com.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to Chris Henry as well as his friends and family.  We hope he can recover from this tragic event.  Nobody deserves to have something like this happen to them.  We will make sure to keep our readers posted on his status.

Update: Foxsports.com reports Henry is in fact on life support, and the situation is described as "dire".  There are speculations about what has happened but we wont add to those rumors.  This is a shock considering how Henry has turned things around dramtically in the past few years.  The Manchise hopes that these injuries are not fatal and we will continue to hope for recovery.

Thursday Morning Update:  Chris Henry reportedly has died this morning at 6:36 a.m.  Henry was 26.

The Rumor Mill: December 16

(Picture from http://www.slam.canoe.ca/)

MLB:

Cliff Lee/Roy Halladay- The four team trade between the Phillies, Blue Jays, A's, and Mariners was finally announced by Seattle in a press release according to mlbtraderumors.com. The Mariners will be getting Cliff Lee. The Blue Jays will receive Travis d'Arnaud (C) and Kyle Drabek (RHP) from Phili as well as Brett Wallace (1B/3B) from Oakland. The Phillies will be getting Phillipe Aumont (RHP), Tyson Gillies (OF), and Juan Ramirez (RHP) from the Mariners, $6 million and the 32-year old Roy Halladay from Toronto. Oakland will also receive Michael Taylor (OF) from Philli from Toronto.

Rose Bowl Preview

(courtesy of gasolinealleyantiques.com)

As the holiday season fast approaches, so too does another magical part of this time of year: bowl season.  With only 15 days left until the first BCS bowl, we will begin counting down the days and giving a preview of each of the BCS games to come.  These previews will take the place of the 'Your Daily J' post for the day, but will hopefully provide some real information, rather than our ignorant opinions.  So, here we go, our BCS preview begins.  As with everything else in this place, be sure to give us your feedback.  As gameday draws closer, you'll be able to show us your thoughts by voting on who you think will win on the side bar.  In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment or shoot us an e-mail.

We kick things off with the first BCS game of the new year.  The Grandaddy of Them All.  The Rose Bowl.  Oregon v. Ohio State.  3:30 CT, January 1st, 2010.  This should be a good one featuring two teams that are near-perfect mirror images of each other.  Ohio State is predicated on tradition, conservatism and fundamentals.  Oregon is the definition of new-age.  Rumor has it the Ducks have upwards of 300 uniforms to choose from when they take the field on Saturdays and nearly as many offensive weapons.  They run the spread with an option-style QB in Jeremiah Masoli and average nearly 38 points per game.  Ohio State and their "Tressel-ball" play smash-mouth defense and run more of a pro-style offense.  The two, at a glance, appear to be a great matchup of very different styles of football and very different football cultures.

We May be Witnesses: Running Diary of the Bull vs. Lakers

The Chicago Bulls are taking on The Los Angeles Lakers tonight at the United Center, and something magical is happening. The Bulls are shooting lights out, and Kirk Hinrich is playing well off the bench for an injured Derrick Rose (strained right rib obtained early in the first quarter). Now I know that I'm usually stoked about the Bulls winning, and shooting well, but there is something more that is going on. Kobe Bryant (broken finger and all) has hit SIX straight field goals. He's hitting jumpers from all angles, from all sides of the court, with all sorts of fall away jumpers. He's hitting shots like he is playing horse in an open gym. With two minutes left in the FIRST QUARTER he has 20-points. The Bulls are leading 29-26 with 1:40 remaining. So with such a good start for both Kobe and the Bulls (my two favorite things in the NBA) I decided it is time for my first ever running diary.

Your Daily J: 12/15

(Wisconsin AD Alvarez courtesy of jsonline.com)

Friday, Wisconsin Athletic Dirctor, Barry Alvarez, discussed with the athletic board at the University of Wisconsin the possibility of the Big Ten expanding and adding another school.  Now, this has been a relatively hot topic around the midwest for some time now. It comes and it goes and teams are rarely added to the conference.  Back in '89, the Big Ten had to start working on a fancy new logo revealing an 11 in the center as Penn State was thrown into the mix (and thus giving the conference one of the least fitting names in the country).  Since then, the discussion of adding more schools hasn't really caught fire, but most talks centered around Notre Dame (gee, I wonder what our opinions on that would be) and have fizzled out quickly as the Irish faithful point out that they have their own TV contract and "don't need the Big Ten." (that's right, they just play half our conference every year, but they don't "need" us - just like they didn't "need" the Big East in basketball a few years back).  But with renewed talks of expansion, there are two major things that have been racking our brains:  Who would be the expansion school?  And, since we couldn't possibly pull off the Big Ten name any longer, what would we call ourselves?  As always, these are just our thoughts.  Be sure to let us know how stupid we are and how much better your thoughts are.

Oz Fest '10

(Picture from ESPN.com)

Sox fans gather round. I have a little story to tell. A story about a genius GM, one that takes brilliant chances and gets the job done season in and season out. A GM that is not afraid to shop every single player at any given time. This is a story about a manager that most can't understand. A manager that is out spoken and true. A manager that brings a "University of Miami" feel to it (for those of you that watched The U the other night on ESPN you know what I'm talking about). This is a story about a certain team in the beautiful CHICAGO, I-L. A team that HAS hoisted up a World Series Trophy in the past 100 years (and just in case you want to know the exact amount of time to the seconds its been since this last happened, check this out). A team that has one solid pitching staff, and a line-up that favors the Cell. A team that should be able to win the AL Central with ease. Of course I am talking about the Chicago White Sox.

Your Daily J: 12/14

(Picture from blogcdn.com)

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have a new coach, someone else who will lead them back to the promised land. Friday afternoon, Brian Kelly, former head coach at Cincinnati, was announced as the new head coach at Notre Dame University. He officially takes over as head coach today, but met with the team over the weekend. This leaves Cincinnati without a head coach for their January 1st Sugar Bowl showdown against Florida. In Kelly's stead, offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn will serve as interim head coach. The questions will be pouring about whether or not Kelly can restore the luster of Notre Dame and how he will do it. As usual, we have a few other questions we've been thinking about. Some of them have been voiced on ESPN, and others are still running around our little overactive minds. Questions like: Should college coaches have to stay with their current team through the end of the year if they sign a contract with another school? Should schools be able to contact coaches at other schools before the end of the bowl season? Should players be able to transfer without sitting out a season if the coach who recruited them leaves?

Completely Un"BEAR"able

(Picture of Lovie thinking about his future coaching jobs from ESPN.com)

It has been another head shaking Sunday for Chicago.  The Bears just finished another terrible, awful, dreadful, appalling, horrific, horrendous, hideous, revolting and repulsive game today. The scoreboard doesn’t show it, but the Bears got owned left and right by those dang Cheeseheads. The home crowd had no effect because the Bears had no momentum for three of the four quarters.  The only time it changed was after halftime with a beautiful touchdown pass from Jay (he does know the Bears team colors!).  The Bears were still in the game at that moment and momentum was lingering around Solider Field until Cutler threw his second interception of the game (maybe he doesn't know the team colors). He looked terrible once again, and even though he had two interceptions, it could have easily been three of four. The Packers breezed past the Bears for another win.