Month: December 2016

Kobe shuts it out. He doesn’t believe in cognitive dissonance

Elite Mens Sam Mills Jersey Longtime Lakers fan Bryan Robinson says “there was no feeling like rocking the number 8 gold jersey” and explains why he will forever be a Kobe Bryant.

“Get your ass up. Her getting her ass knocked down is going to do more for the culture, more for the human spirit, than her going her entire career undefeated. People need to see how she handles that, how she deals with that.”

It’s not easy to get past his slogans. “I’ve studied advertising for years,” he says. If he’d gone to college, that’s what he would have majored in. Instead, he says, “I wrote 90 percent of my own commercials.”

When real life doesn’t fit into pithy tag lines or 90-second commercials, Kobe shuts it out. He doesn’t believe in cognitive dissonance. It’s not productive.

For instance, Kobe hasn’t spoken to his parents in nearly three years. Not since 2013, when they tried to auction off his high school memorabilia without his consent.

“Our relationship is shit,” he says. “I say [to them], ‘I’m going to buy you a very nice home, and the response is ‘That’s not good enough’?” he says. “Then you’re selling my shit?”

Church. Workout. Office. Disneyland. In that order. That’s what he was going to do.

His wife and two daughters stayed up with him as long as they could, eating pizza and trying to unwind from an epic final night nobody was entirely sure yet was real.
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After 20 seasons, he was entitled to sleep in. Instead he set his alarm clock, determined to follow the script he had written.

“I’m kind of still in shock,” Kobe says from his living room in Newport Beach.

Sixty points?! On 50 shots?!

the Falcons will look to clean up their mistakes in front of a friendly home crowd

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Keenum had his best game as a pro against the Buccaneers, completing 14 of 17 passes for 234 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Kids Chris Doleman Jersey Wilson has been excellent for the Seahawks in recent weeks. He has thrown at least three touchdown passes and no interceptions in five straight games, while receiver Doug Baldwin has 10 receptions in his last four games, joining Jerry Rice as the only players to accomplish that.

No other player on the Saints roster counted more than $7 million against the salary cap in 2015, while Brees represented a $23.8 million hit. In 2016, defensive end Cameron Jordan is due to carry a $12.8 million hit and safety Jairus Byrd will count as a $10.9 million hit. Former Saints defensive end Junior Galette will count as a $12.1 million hit, despite being released and signed by Washington in the summer.

“It is a possibility he is playing his last game in the Superdome,” Rapoport said on NFL GameDay Morning on Sunday. “He has a $30 million cap figure for next year, and he’s simply not going to play on that. What I am told is do not simply assume he will be back. He will need to take a hometown discount as far as a contract extension to do so. There is some thought on the team that the reason they have depth issues is because Brees maximized his contract last time.”

Brees, 36, has been with the Saints since signing with the team in free agency in 2006 after beginning his career with the San Diego Chargers. In 10 seasons with New Orleans, he has made eight Pro Bowls and led the team to a Super Bowl victory in 2010.

The Saints are close to finishing a 10th consecutive season in the top six of the NFL in total offense with Brees at the helm, but the defense has struggled to improve in recent years. After improving to No. 4 in the NFL during an 11-5 season in 2013, the defense allowed the fifth-most points in 2014 and has given up the most points in the NFL in 2015.

Last year Durant was offered the same $26.5 million starting salary by all the teams that pitched him

Why would the players agree? Don’t they want to be able to leave in free agency?
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Because money. That’s going to be a recurring theme here. The owners have agreed to increase the money players can get across the board. A good example is Stephen Curry.

He is going to be a free agent next summer and under this new rule, the Warriors can pay him $209 million over five years. It could start at $36 million next year, which would be a record annual salary.

“This is our family, these are our friends that got directly affected,” Sabrina said. “Lang was in L.A. and was just like, ‘What can I do? What can I do?'”

“When the flood happened,” Langston said, “we just wanted to be a part of [helping out]. At first we didn’t know what we should do.”

Elite Womens Memphis Grizzlies Jersey They started with those they knew best. As Langston worried from afar, group texts among friends and family began. Soon, Sabrina was heading to Walmart to buy cleaning supplies, pulling out wet carpet, knocking down sheet rock. Langston’s childhood home withstood the rain, but Sabrina’s mother’s house was submerged in water the height of a preteen.

“She has walls now, but she’s still not back in it,” Sabrina said.

The Galloways donated $25,000 to the East Baton Rouge school board toward technology, school supplies and uniforms. Langston had held a basketball camp for grades 5-12 there before the storm, and the Pelicans visited a Red Cross shelter at the end of August.

The Texans are now 8-6, still tied with the Tennessee Titans atop the AFC South with two games remaining

Texans Pro Bowl receiver DeAndre Hopkins benefited from the quarterback switch, finishing with eight catches for 87 yards, his highest-yardage game since Week 2 this season. Last season, Hopkins had 111 receptions for 1,521 yards and 11 touchdowns while catching passes from four starting quarterbacks. Entering Sunday’s game, Hopkins had more than 60 receiving yards in just one of the Texans’ previous seven games.

“Just being around him, obviously not getting the physical reps with him, but being around him for three years, you kind of know what he¡¯s about,” Savage said. “You know that he¡¯s one of the best receivers in this league, and it was good to show that today.¡±
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Richardson was upset the team tried to move him, sources said. Some believe that soured his attitude and could be contributing to his disappointing season — only 1 1/2 sacks in 13 games.

He was suspended by the NFL for the opener, a personal conduct violation stemming from an arrest in July 2015. He pleaded guilty for resisting arrest after leading police on a high-speed chase in suburban St. Louis. His Bentley was clocked at 143 mph, and he was driving with a child in the car, police said.

Richardson served a four-game suspension at the start of the 2015 season for multiple marijuana violations.

The Jets almost certainly will try to trade Richardson, the 2013 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, in the offseason. He has one year remaining on his rookie contract and is due to make $8.1 million.
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He spoke briefly to reporters after Saturday night’s game, responding mostly with “no comment.” The interview session lasted less than two minutes, and he complained about having to return to the locker room to fulfill his league-mandated media obligation.

Joe McKnight lay there with his arms folded

Vinatieri had to deal with this oil spill. All kickers rely on a smooth operation between long-snapper and holder, and when that trust is broken, bad things happen. But Vinatieri knew as long as Kinchen sent anything remotely catchable, Walter would gather it, and then he would handle the rest. Watching across the field, unaware of the drama playing out in the Patriots huddle, Carolina receiver Ricky Proehl felt sick over what was about to go down. He’d scored the tying touchdown for the Rams two years earlier, before Vinatieri’s winner, and he’d just scored the tying touchdown for the Panthers.

On TV screens everywhere, CBS put up a graphic stating that Vinatieri had missed only four indoor field goals in 35 career attempts, but all four were in Reliant Stadium. It didn’t matter. “He’s not going to miss,” Proehl told himself. “Game’s over. This is what he does.”

In other words, Rodrigue is asking how Hayes could have accidentally pulled the trigger, while Grossman’s book asks how could he have not.

The next morning, a white hearse pulled up and parked in front of a church on Carondelet Street. People carried the shiny casket inside and opened the top.
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Joe McKnight lay there with his arms folded. His family can only bury him and remember him; very often in New Orleans, justice is elusive and incomplete, if it comes at all.

At the church, people lined up for the visitation. His old USC teammate, LenDale White, went inside and then came back out, walking off down the sidewalk, overcome. A high school teammate wore a John Curtis letterman’s jacket, red and blue, with patches on the sleeve for the 2005 and 2006 state championships he and Joe won together. Former college and pro teammates served as pallbearers.
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Matt Ryan has yet to have playoff success in Atlanta. Neither has Andy Dalton in Cincinnati. Matthew Stafford has carried the Detroit Lions into playoff contention this season, and the Oakland Raiders’ Derek Carr is now in the MVP conversation, at the very least.

Dolphins owner says the Dolphins are the very finest football team, apart from the football

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“From every aspect except on the playing field, we’re probably the first-class organization in the National Football League,” said Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, whose 6-10 team will be sitting out the playoffs for the seventh consecutive year, a franchise record.

Authentic Ben Smith Jersey This is good to know! Some other good facts: From every aspect except the medicine, I am a first-class surgeon, and taking into account everything except the thumbs, general neural arrangement and interest in or even vague comprehension of the arts, my cat is the very finest violinist on earth.

In any case, it is unclear whether this statement of unabashed optimism and at least partial truth came before or after Ross missed three consecutive high fives. One for each head coach in the Dolphins’ calendar year, perhaps.

Rounding things out, the Chiefs won their 10th straight game, outlasting the Raiders to lock up the No. 5 seed and the Jets, who just had to win to get in, stumbled badly and lost to the Bills. Combined with the Steelers’ easy win over the Browns, Pittsburgh jumped past New York and grabbed the sixth and final spot in the playoffs. Rough day for Jets fans.

Over in the NFC, the Panthers locked up the No. 1 seed behind Cam Newton’s big four-touchdown day (two through the air, two on the ground), rolling the Buccaneers to finish 15-1. The Cardinals settled for the No. 2 seed after getting dominated by the Seahawks at home, but Arizona still gets a nice first-round bye.

This is not entirely important, but I did find it to be a pretty interesting and surprising stat: Prior to Sunday’s action, Jay Cutler had been the only starting quarterback in the NFL without a multi-interception game all season. That streak ended, of course, when he threw three picks against the Lions in the finale.

Joe Flacco had to sleep in a room with Tom Brady posters during the NFL offseason

It¡¯s not abnormal for kids to decorate their rooms with posters of their favorite athletes. It¡¯s a little abnormal when your brother is an NFL quarterback and you decorate your room with posters of his rival. It¡¯s downright offensive when that rival is Tom Brady.

And it¡¯s got to be a bit of a gut punch when your brother, Super Bowl champion Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens, is forced to sleep in that room, in his own house, for a few months during the offseason.

Yet for the first two years of his career, that¡¯s exactly the type of torture Flacco put up with when he went to stay with his parents in New Jersey. To his credit, Flacco didn¡¯t make a big deal out of it.

It¡¯s really nothing to be ashamed of, it just feels a bit weird. Like that scene in Like Mike when Dirk Nowitzki asks Bow Wow (n¨¦e Lil¡¯ Bow Wow) for his autograph. There are no written rules against it, it¡¯s just generally not done or talked about.

But Manning thinks there¡¯s a way he can avoid these issues in the future.

¡°He’s got to learn to be a good guy and learn how to warm up to those guys so he can get some calls,” he told the longtime New York City radio host.

Beckham wasn¡¯t the only Giants receiver the two-time Super Bowl champion touched on. Victor Cruz spoke out Sunday night after failing to earn a single target in the loss to the Steelers.
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Game Devan Dubnyk Jersey ¡°There¡¯s always opportunities for everybody to get the ball out there and I didn¡¯t get those today,¡± Cruz told the New York Daily News.

Manning deflected his longtime wideout¡¯s concerns.

“I’m not in the targeting business. My job is to go through progressions, reads, a lot of it just depends on the play and the coverage.

“I wish I could get everyone 7-8 catches a game. It just doesn’t always work that way.”

Washington wide receiver John Ross could be an early pick if he leaves school

Kiper: Third-year sophomore, potentially. Michigan linebacker/safety Jabrill Peppers, Alabama cornerback Marlon Humphrey and Ohio State cornerback Marshon Lattimore are all draft-eligible sophomores on my latest Big Board. Then there’s Stanford defensive end Solomon Thomas, Oklahoma offensive tackle Orlando Brown and Ohio State safety Malik Hooker, plus two from Notre Dame: quarterback DeShone Kizer and guard Quenton Nelson. Some of these guys will likely return to school, but some won’t. The talent level here is incredible.
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Who’s going to catapult up boards like Carson Wentz did last year?

McShay: Washington wide receiver John Ross could be an early pick if he leaves school — and runs as fast as expected. I’m also interested to see if the two Ohio State defensive backs Mel just mentioned (Lattimore and Hooker) decide to return to school for a second season as full-time starters, or if they bolt after the upcoming playoff. Both need more game experience, but both are very talented.

Womens Brian Cushing Jersey Washington speedster John Ross has 17 TDs this season.

Chiefs win: They move into an incredibly advantageous position with a victory. In addition to all but sealing a playoff berth, Andy Reid’s team would move into first place in the AFC West by virtue of a tiebreaker, having swept the Raiders in their head-to-head matchups this season.

If the Colts lose, they’re basically toast. They would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Texans, and while they would be only a game back with three to play, Andrew Luck & Co. have to travel to Minnesota and Oakland for games against playoff contenders over the next two weeks. The Upshot gives Indy just a 7 percent chance to make the postseason with a loss, and they’re a 50-50 proposition with a win. The Texans would have a 76 percent chance of making the postseason with a victory, which falls to 27 percent with a loss.

Take heart, Steelers. A team has won an NFL playoff game minus its top receiver & rusher

Dan Fouts was intercepted five times in shocking loss to Oilers. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be without DeAngelo Williams and Antonio Brown in the playoffs Sunday against Denver. Several outlets are saying this is the first time in NFL history a team has been in a playoff game minus its leading rusher and receiver. This is wrong; it will be the second time.

Authentic Mens Koa Misi Jersey In the 1979 AFC Divisional playoffs, the Houston Oilers traveled to face the top-seeded San Diego Chargers. The Oilers were without Earl Campbell (their leading rusher), Ken Burrough (their leading receiver) and Dan Pastorini (their starting quarterback). They were facing a high-flying Chargers team led by Dan Fouts that looked like a lock. That’s why they play the game.

The Oilers didn’t put up much offense but stunned the Chargers, 17-14. The reason? The Oilers intercepted Fouts five times. The hero was defensive coordinator Eddie Biles, who had figured out the Chargers’ hand signals. Here is the Sports Illustrated game story from January 1980:

The ankle sprain was welcomed news, as Maclin has had his ACL repaired twice previously. He tore his ACL early in his college career at Missouri, and he missed the entirety of the 2013 season with the Philadelphia Eagles after tearing his ACL in training camp. Maclin was emotional when he left the field Saturday, anticipating the worst, but managed to avoid the worst case scenario.
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Maclin’s status is especially important for a Chiefs’ offense that has managed to win 11 straight games while missing a key player. Running back Jamaal Charles was placed on injured reserve early in the season with a torn ACL.

Maclin was the Chiefs’ leading receiver through the regular season, with 1,088 yards and eight touchdowns on 87 receptions. In the Chiefs Wild Card victory over the Texans, their first playoff win since 1994, Maclin had three receptions for 29 yards.

I wondered if perhaps for a lot of football fans, even in 2016, in their minds if it didn’t show up on the stat sheet, then it didn’t happen. That’s not to say any of these guys had pitiful stats, it’s just that to truly understand their impact you need to look deeper than that.

The Clippers present perhaps the best human drama of the 2016-17 season

Griffin’s rise to superstardom muddled the team’s hierarchy, since he needed to siphon some ball-handling duties from Paul. “When you have multiple alphas, multiple guys in a lot of TV commercials, there is always going to be some tension and clashing,” J.J. Redick told ESPN.com.

It’s not completely gone. Griffin smashing his hand in an after-hours fight last season jolted the team. But everyone swears the vibe is the best it’s been since Paul’s arrival five long years ago. “I never had a problem with Chris,” Griffin said. “Sometimes it was better than others. Our spirit as a team is great now.”

Limited Kids Spencer Long Jersey It had better be. This may be the last, best chance for the cursed L.A. stepchild to bust through the second round and chase the sort of success they’ve never experienced. More than a year ago, Doc Rivers, the team’s coach and team president, told me that teams who fall short over and over grow stale — and that the Clippers were “on the borderline” of needing a shakeup.

Jordan may not guard Green at all when Golden State goes to its Death Lineup; the Clips slot him onto Andre Iguodala, so either Griffin or Mbah a Moute can take Green — and switch onto Curry.

It just hasn’t worked. Golden State has shredded L.A.’s defense in every recent matchup. The Clippers will negotiate the first two switches fine, and then break down on the third or fourth action. Someone will back-cut Crawford. Curry’s shoulder-shaking has juked Paul. Klay Thompson is cool shooting right over Redick. Two Clippers will chase one Warrior, leaving another naked. Griffin isn’t quite long enough to bother Curry on those step-back 3s. Jordan is too slow to pivot into emergency response mode when Curry has daylight:
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Expecting perfection against the Warriors’ gauntlet is unfair. Every team messes up a dozen or so possessions each night. But to have any chance, you have to minimize that number, and the Clippers haven’t shown they can do that. “When you defend them,” Redick said, “it’s almost like every play has the intensity of the last minute in a close game. You have to defend so many actions. Fall asleep for a second, and it’s over.”