Category: Sports

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Sports

Buffalo Bills Season Begins Tonight!

The Bills take on the Patriots in the first game of the Monday Night Football double-header tonight. The Bills had a lackluster preseason (that’s putting it nicely) and thus many Bills fans have given up on the team before they have even played a down!

I, of course, being a BIG Bills Fan have not, and spelled out some of the reasons why in an article I published today at my BleacherReport.com page. The title? Just Who Are The 2009 Buffalo Bills Anyway?

We’ll find out tonight, I think. I’m hoping they’re the really fun, high-scoring team they could be. I’m neither optimistic nor pessimistic about that… mostly curious.

And excited that Bills football is here!

Go Bills!

(And if you’re a fellow Bills fan, or even just an NFL fan, do click the link to the Bleacher Report article. Don’t make me post it twice…) 😉

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Entertainment Sports

NFL Realignment?

This past week, the boys and I discovered a feature in Madden 08 that allows me to see my proposed divisional alignment for the NFL in “action”.

Using the “Franchise” feature, you can actually realign the divisions however you want to. I saw my golden opportunity to watch an NFL season unfold with rivalries like Buffalo-Cleveland, Buffalo-Pittsburgh, Baltimore-Washington, KC-St. Louis, and even Dallas-Houston.

Why wouldn’t divisions comprised of teams from cities that are actually in the same general region make more sense that a division where Miami and Buffalo are rivals, or the Dallas Cowboys play in the East, or St. Louis, Phoenix, and Seattle are all play each other twice?

I actually wrote a letter to Paul Tagliabue back when the league added Jacksonville and Carolina, suggesting to him that the old AFL and NFL allegiances were not as important as a division alignment that made geographical sense – and would create different (maybe better?) rivalries.

My favorite division is the Great Lakes division (or, I nick-named it the “Bus League”) which is home to Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Pittsburgh. Those cities are all really close to each other, meaning fans from every team could travel to all the away games! There is a sense of rivalry already on the rare occasions that Buffalo plays Cleveland… I’d imagine it would be the same if you throw Detroit in the mix, too.

Just for fun, here’s the list of what my NFL would look like with the current 32 teams in the league. Maybe some day we’ll get there…

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Northeast: Chicago, New England (Boston), NY Giants, NY Jets
Coastal: Baltimore, Carolina, Philadelphia, Washington
Southeast: Atlanta, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa Bay
Great Lakes (Midwest): Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Heartland (Midwest): Cincinnati, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Tennessee
South: Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis
North: Denver, Green Bay, Minnesota, Seattle
West Coast: Arizona, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco

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Sports

Buffalo Bills Football is Almost Here!!

Serious, folks. It’s almost here. This Saturday, the Bills will begin their training camp practices, and two weeks from Sunday they will play their first pre-season game!! (We’re excited!)

They made the surprising move of retaining the popular-with-the-players, but mildly unsuccessful head coach Dick Jauron, but then followed that up with some very intriguing moves (and, I’d say popular with the fans) including dumping somewhat subversive LT Jason Peters (dude was trouble… even admitted to taking plays off because he wanted more money.) and two more offensive lineman that were underachieving. Then they brought in Terrell Owens, who, love him or hate him, he has certainly boosted local and national interest in our team. Plus, another pretty good group of rookies, a few key free agents…

On paper it looks like it will be a fun year. But, talk to me again in November 🙂

For now, I leave you with a series of articles leading up to the opening of training camp. The BuffaloBills.com lead journalist, Chris Brown, has been posting the top 25 questions going into 2009. (And a couple other contributers.) All good stuff, will help get you ready for BILLS FOOTBALL!!!

Go Bills!

(They have been releasing these in reverse numerical order, but I decided to switch them around. Will add links to the last three as they are posted.)

Top 25 Questions for Bills 2009 Season

1: Will O-line have enough time to jell?
2: Can Edwards handle added responsibility?
3: Do Bills have intimidation factor?
4: Will the Bills make the playoffs?
5: Who are the training camp sleepers?
6: Who will become a playmaker on special teams?
7: Can the Bills topple the Patriots?
8: Can Bills pass rush be reliable?
9: Will Lynch be fresher down the stretch?
10: Can Walker hold down LT?
11: Will Owens post double digit TDs?
12: Who will become a playmaker on offense?
13: Can Butler re-master right tackle?
14: How much will Sanders help the D-line?
15: Who will be the nickel CB?
16: Will Jackson see more touches?
17: How much will Owens help Evans?
18: Will Schobel return to form?
19: Who will be the strong side LB?
20: Can special teams still dominate?
21: Which rookies will start?
22: How often will no huddle be used?
23: Who becomes a playmaker on defense?
24: What will be the offensive pecking order?
25: Who will be the starting TE?

[See all BuffaloBills.com news articles]

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Sports

The End

Well, it was a great, great season, and a great run through the NCAA tournament for my Spartans, but last night, it came to a screeching halt. Not only did they lose the game, and not only did they lose it by 17 points, they were simply a shell of who they had been all season, and through the previous 5 games in the tournament. They had more than 20 turnovers, they were dominated on the boards (they led the entire nation in rebounding margin in the 2008-2009 season) and their shooting percentage was just horrible.

Still, they kept getting to within about 15 points for the last 10 minutes of the game or so. They were playing some pretty good defense, and started to catch up in the rebound column… but it was too late, and, well… you have to hit some shots! Sheesh! 🙂

It was a great season, though. Definitely fun to see my team get so far, do so well.

The Sabres on the other hand…

They played last night, too. Actually, they played Saturday night as well. Lost both times. Pretty badly. On Saturday, to their credit, they made a valiant attempt at redeeming an awful game. They got the score to 3-2 after being down 3-0 to start the third period. Dominated the third, but lost. And it was a key loss. Had they won it, they would have tied the team directly above them, and been very much “in the hunt” for the last playoff spot.

But they did not.

So, last night, they needed to win, well, pretty much the remaining four games in the season. Tough task against one of the best teams from the Western Conference, Detroit, but it’s what they had to do. It was 0-0 through half of the game, until they allowed a power play goal… then it just crashed and burned. They ended up losing 4-1.

They still have a slight chance at making the playoffs. They would need the three teams ahead of them to lose most or all of their games, while they win all three of theirs… right. Not going to happen.

The difference between the two endings is, even though MSU was not “on their game” they still kept their heads in the game, and were sticking around to the end. The Sabres… I guess you could say they are trying, and they are “sticking around” to the end, but it also seems pretty obvious that they don’t belong. I’d look for major player turnover in the offseason for the Sabres, while the Spartans will return largely the same team of guys… meaning it should be a good season next year, too!

So, my teams are done… time to start getting ready for Buffalo Bills football!!! 🙂

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Sports

It Comes Down To This

Two Big Games

The Sabres are basically already eliminated from the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs. They have only 9 games left, and they are a full 8 points out of the top eight spots – the playoff teams. They fell to the 10th spot and have been hovering there for quite a while, thanks largely to long absences by their top two stars, Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek.

But perhaps, really, it’s just because they’re not that good.

Still, after watching them fight back two days ago – impressively, I might add – from a 3-1 deficit against the team directly above them in the standings… there’s still a very small glimmer of hope.

In fact, it’s really only as big as the next two games.

Toronto has had a rough season. The Sabres should beat them. It’s a home game, and they should win. (After their most recent slump, though, the Leafs are only 3 points behind the Sabres in the conference standings!)

The big game is tomorrow night, in Montreal. Hockey Night in Canada. Montreal is currently holding the 8th playoff spot. The Sabres will effectively be eliminated if they give that team two points. If they win both the next two, they will climb to within 4 points though, with seven games remaining. That’s still doable.

So, it should be interesting… looking forward to watching the next two games to see if this team has any fight left in them. They get their star goalie back tonight… perhaps that (plus the big come-from-behind win on Wednesday) will be just the boost they need.

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Sports

Sabres Lose Top Stars, Clinging to Playoff Hopes

Ryan Miller is OutThe Sabres seem to have plenty of bad luck in the injury department. Not just this season, but nearly every season. A few years ago, they made it to game seven of the conference finals, but most likely lost because they had one starting defenseman who was healthy! Many of the defensemen have missed time this season also. 2009 has been pretty much the same story, including the most recent injury to all-star goalie, Ryan Miller.

In Saturday’s victory over the Rangers, the Sabres lost Miller to a high ankle sprain. Those are bad. They usually place football players on the season-ending IR. They involve at least weeks of recovery, sometimes months. That’s bad. Miller is arguably the Sabres’ best player. And if some might give that title to Thomas Vanek, well, he’s gone too.

The Sabres’ best news this season has been the huge contribution from Tim Connolly, who it seems has been injured for more than two thirds of every season he’s been in the league! (Including this one.) He has become the star the Sabres hoped he would be since returning from his injuries this season.

Sabres.com posted an article about the injured Sabres, including an encouraging update: Thomas Vanek is skating again in practice. He was not expected back this early. Max Afinogenov and Andrew Peters are also currently recovering from injuries.

It’s definitely not good when you are clinging to eighth place in the conference – the final playoff spot – and you lose your top two players. The Sabres are likely thinking about making some trades before the trade deadline on March 4th. Maybe a veteran goalie, maybe another forward… who knows. While Connolly, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville, Drew Stafford, and a few others have had pretty good seasons, it’s hard to recover from losing your best two players. Perhaps a trade or two can give the Sabres what they need to make the playoffs, get their stars back, and make a run of it. Perhaps.

The playoffs are always more fun when your team is in it. We’ll see if the 2009 playoffs will be “fun”.

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Personal Sports

University at Buffalo – BOWL GAME!

UB BullsI am actually an alumnus of three different universities. All undergrad. All within four years after completing high school. That’s kinda strange, but does give me a few teams to root for.

One of those is playing in a bowl game today!

At 1:00pm on ESPN2, you can see the UB Bulls take on UConn (do they have a football team?) in the International Bowl (I think) up in Toronto, Canada. (What is it with Buffalo teams playing in Canada???)

UB actually is not only competitive this year… they’re pretty good! We’ll be rooting them on here.

Also, as a little piece of trivia… way back in the spring of 1994, the UB football team roster included this name: Greg Campbell.

It’s true! But I gave up my career in football to pursue a degree from Cincinnati Bible College and helping people learn to live with Jesus. That’s been an interesting ride! Not what I would have expected. But, I definitely wouldn’t change anything.

I just might be picturing me out there catching passes in the UB blue today… 🙂

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Sports

Donte Whitner - Buffalo BillsWe were joined on the Buffalo Bills Review tonight by Bills starting strong safety, Donte Whitner! Was a fun (pretty short) conversation where we covered stuff like his being the 8th pick in the draft (and how that was such a surprise at the time!) and about his big playoff guarantee. Plus, he has a foundation that helps inner city kids and kids from single-parent homes in various ways. Cool stuff.

So, if you are a football fan, and forgot that I have a Buffalo Bills show… click on over and check it out. James Hardy (Bills’ rookie WR) will be joining us later this week on the Bills bye week. Stay tuned…

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Sports

Hockey Is Back!

With football season in full swing, and alllll the other stuff going on around here in Campbell-land, it’s pretty hard to fit anything else in, but we were offered the good six-month promo price on digital cable so we decided to do it for the bulk of the hockey season. So far we have been rewarded.

I followed the Sabres’ offseason moves and was optimistic that we’d see a return to something more like the President’s Trophy season of two years ago. If you can extrapolate anything from only two games… we just may be!

The Sabres have won their first two games, one against the Eastern Conference champs from last season (with some great saves by our supposedly superstar goalie, as well as TWO goals in the shoot out – both of which didn’t happen much last year!) and the other in a blowout on the road – 7-1 over the NY Islanders today. If Miller plays as well as he did in the first game (and as well as he did in the previous few years other than last season) then we certainly can score goals…

Could be a fun year!

Could we have two championship teams in Buffalo this year??! (How crazy would that be??!)

So, busy here, but having fun.
Go Buffalo!

Categories
Family Sports

Are You Ready For Some Football??

NFLNFL football is back! The regular season starts this week with a game featuring the World Champ NY Giants and the Washington Redskins on NBC Thursday night, a full slate of games on Sunday (including the BILLS GAME!), and then a double-header on ESPN on Monday Night. I can’t wait!!

The Bills are looking really good this year. From the coaches and the offensive and defensive schemes, to the players, established and new… it really could be a fun season to be a Bills fan. (I know I say that pretty often, but… seriously. Just watch…) 🙂

The start of the season also means that it’s time for Dad & the Boys to make their weekly NFL picks! 🙂 I almost feel like I am looking forward to that more than the football 🙂 It was lots of fun last year, and should be even more fun this year! We’re doing the whole season this time!

There’s a cool Facebook application where you can make picks and compare your results against your friends… it’s called Pro Football Picks, if you’re interested.

So, just a few days away… let the games begin!!