Category: Oakland Raiders

by David Zizmor

As far as I’m concerned New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick can say whatever he wants regarding Deflategate, the NFL is not going to invalidate the Patriots victory one way or the other the concern is that the league believes the Pats purposely deflated the football and their going to loose some draft picks. That would certainly hurt them in order to build a good football team.

Belichick is asking the league to prove that the Pats have deflated in the AFC Championship game and that they did it over and over again. In the press conference the other day one of the things that Belichick was pointing out there were some footballs on the field for awhile and they needed some air and anyone whose played with a football kind of knows that.

The football gets inflated and overtime they lose air, with a professional football the ball is getting smacked around and being fallen on by giant 300 pound defenders and offensive linemen the air could get squished out a little bit faster. Whether the ball would deflate to the point to where the league has said that it was well below what the general measures according to the league standards.

It’s really not known what kind of studies the league has done in terms of deflated football games over time. Belichick will be brining that issue up over the course of Super Bowl week and he wants to defend his team and wants the league to prove he deflated and he wants to be able to draft without any hitches. No one knows who really deflated the footballs and it was asked of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady or it could have been an equipment guy, who knows it could have been anybody.

There is a chance it might have been nobody the ball could have just kind of deflated during the course of the game, the fact of the matter is if those balls made it onto the field and there’s a lot of protocols those balls go through before they ever get on that field you certainly would have to ask the officials. It’s a possibility that the balls lost air over time but really nobody knows.

It’s certainly a distraction going into the Super Bowl and Belichick is tired about having to answer questions about it when their supposed to be doing tons and tons of preparation to beat the Seahawks. Belichick just wants to get past it and wants to get some great draft picks in the future and go from there. How much is Deflategate being a distraction to the locker room is anyone’s guess you want to talk about a team that has been to six Super Bowls they certainly have a good idea on how to prepare for this sort of thing.

David Zizmor is covering Super Bowl XLIX and doing commentary and podcasts Super Bowl week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Daniel Dullum

GLENDALE AZ–The NFL players past and present have made their voices clear where they want the Pro Bowl to be played and that’s in Honolulu. The players said that the Pro Bowl should stay in Hawaii and that should be the game’s permanent home. Walking around the home of the 2015 NFL All-Star game’s headquartered site downtown Phoenix there is in the way of very little promotions about the Pro Bowl, no banners, signs, souvenirs, or any publications talking about the game being in Arizona.

The players were vocal in saying that they want the game to remain in Hawaii, they argued that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after the 2013 Pro Bowl said the game looked unacceptable as far as effort and competitiveness after a poor effort that even saw New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees try to kick an extra point in that game. “We’re either going to have to improve the quality of what we’re doing in the Pro Bowl or consider other changes or even eliminating the game if that’s the kind of quality game we’re going to provide” Goodell said after the 2013 game.

That all changed when the 2014 Pro Bowl was played with more piss and vinegar and the result ended up in a 22-21 win for Team Jerry Rice over team Deon Sanders. This effort changed the heart of Goodell who said after last season’s game, “it was a real football. It was something that I give a lot of credit to the players. I believe it was a very, very, positive step and I salute the players and I’m glad they had so much fun. I think the fans had a fun time watching, I know I did” said Goodell after the 2014 game.

The Commissioner wants to keep the game but he wants the game to travel with the Super Bowl but the players who are here in Arizona for this week’s Pro Bowl want the game to be moved back to Hawaii and many have stated they want to the game to stay there and not come back to the mainland. The Commissioner did realize that the game is a reward for the game’s best players and the players have a huge say in this matter and granted the game two more years in addition to the 2016 game making it three.

Team Captain for this year’s Pro Bowl Michael Irvin weighed in and said that he would like to see the game travel with the Super Bowl, “We’re talking about the very best all in one place, but in order to see it you had to get to Hawaii. The people were great in Hawaii, but a lot of people over here were absolutely diehard supporting fans that can’t afford to go Hawaii.”

As much as Irvin is respected by the players, the players carried the weight of the decision regarding getting the Pro Bowl back to Hawaii and they pushed hard for it all week with Goodell and the owners. They made their case that Goodell would keep the game going if they made a better effort and they did and now they are asking that the reward would be returning the game back to Hawaii. They got what they asked for and they got a three year deal in Honolulu. There is no doubt that the people of Hawaii will promote this game with more than just banners, posters, and souvenirs it will be a big Aloha next year.

Daniel Dullum is covering the 2015 Pro Bowl and Super Bowl in Glendale AZ for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Daniel Dullum

GLENDALE AZ–I’ve never covered an NFL All-Star game before so even with the format in the Pro Bowl which I’m not really crazy about it’s still an All-Star game. It’s one of the Big Four it’s another one off the bucket list, it’s most of leagues best. You have some players that are opting not to play which I understand. At the same time the replacements aren’t that bad so fans should be treated to an entertaining evening.

Andrew Luck quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts is not exactly chopped liver and maybe one of the best young quarterbacks in the league bar none, he was selected by Team Chris Carter. Tony Romo quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys was selected by Team Michael Irvin, Romo takes a lot of bum raps but he’s a fine quarterback. Romo is in the upper one third at least if not in the top five.

Romo has put up amazing numbers on any given Sunday and a lot of big reasons for the Cowboys resurgence the last couple of years is Romo. What a job he’s done coming back from a really nasty neck injury that would put some players in retirement and he came back. There’s nothing wrong with Romo vs. Luck if your buying a ticket that’s pretty good game.

Pro Bowl & Super Bowl great for Phoenix economy: There’s been a lot more people in downtown than you normally see downtown as a rule lets say the Arizona Diamondbacks or the Phoenix Suns are at home there’s a little more activity than usual. I haven’t seen this much activity in downtown since they hosted the Major League All-Star game back in 2011 where you have streets blocked off, the convention center is in full use just like for the MLB All-Star game.

For MLB they did the same thing the NFL is doing the entire convention center is devoted to the All-Star game it’s like that for the Super Bowl here. The convention center in Phoenix is four different buildings and their all blocked off for the NFL. There’s something going on everywhere and what it means economically for downtown Phoenix and really to Glendale for the folks going out there their pumping millions of dollars into the economy literally.

It’s not just the game it’s the people coming here staying at the hotels, motels, restaurants, the fans go to the shops not for souvenirs but going on shopping trips. You name it their coming here for the better part of the week and in a half to spend money. The Phoenix and the Arizona economy are reaping the benefits, it’s a huge economic shot in the arm to get to host the Super Bowl.

Daniel Dullum is covering the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl for http://www.sportsradioservice.com to hear the rest of his commentary click on below

by Phillip Torres

GLENDALE AZ–The decision by the NFL last season to have the Pro Bowl to be chosen up by different team captains was an excellent idea and some of the previous years before the Pro Bowl in 2014 it wasn’t really competitive. I would like to see the Pro Bowl like the Major League Baseball All-Star game mean something like the winner having home field advantage.

It would be nice that the NFL would incorporate the idea of the Pro Bowl meaning something for the winning team, the idea of having the Pro Bowl traveling with the Super Bowl is something that some of the fans like. The game used to be in Hawaii and now their bringing the Pro Bowl to neutral sites such as next year’s Super Bowl will be in Santa Clara but the Pro Bowl will return to Honolulu for 2016.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is headed in the right direction and might give some of the local fans for example the people in Arizona get a chance to see the game whereas they can’t afford to go to Hawaii. The idea is liked by the fans just travelling the Pro Bowl with the Super Bowl but not in just one neutral spot. Player wise they would love for it to stay in Honolulu that’s just a great experience for them.

The happy medium is have the game played in Hawaii every other year, it would keep Commissioner Goodell happy traveling the game with the Super Bowl every other year and it would keep the players happy knowing that they would be able to come back to Hawaii. Looking around downtown Phoenix today there were hardly any banners, signs, or anything provided by either the NFL or unlicensed hawkers for that matter that is promoting this week’s Pro Bowl. It’s almost as if no one cares about the game.

Choosing sides for the Pro Bowl: Team Chris Carter made Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck his first choice while Team Captain Michael Irvin kept his favorite and former team on the top of his list choosing the Dallas Cowboys Tony Romo as his first choice. Luck very well deserves the number one pick he should be used to this by now as he was the number one pick by the Colts coming out of the draft there too. Luck right now is on the road to being an elite quarterback, he’s had some great seasons since joining the Colts and he’s very close to having that same conversation of being in the same inner circle of the Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers.

I miss the NFC-AFC format which was replaced by the team captain pick em thing and it would give you the fan favorite kind of thing and there are a lot of players who would like to get involved in representing the Pro Bowl as team captains. Last season was the first year of picking players by team captains. It was to stay with AFC-NFC it could propel the game into something eventful again. The way it looked in Arizona with there being no Pro Bowl banners or promotions of the Pro Bowl anything around the greater Arizona area it looked like a lack of interest in the game by the promoters and worse the NFL.

Phillip Torres covers the San Francisco 49ers during the regular season and check out his podcast below on the NFL Pro Bowl tonight on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Daniel Dullum

GLENDALE AZ–It might sound like New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is throwing quarterback Tom Brady under the bus about Deflategate and that’s because simply he is. Belichick was alluding to the quarterback who has the final say on how the footballs are inflated for game use. Radio analyst John Madden mentioned for commentary that he strongly feels that it’s the quarterback or whoever else and not the coach that their the ones who get behind this sort of thing.

Then Madden added that place kickers, punters, will try to make adjustments on the inflation of the football depending on their purposes. I was a little surprised to see Belichick basically throw the quarterback under the bus like that with the Super Bowl about a week and half away. Coming away from Spygate it doesn’t help Belichick and his name in some circles is Belicheat.

This matter doesn’t help Belichick at all I often wondered if this whole situation is not by design and that it has to do with head games. Their willing to do these nickel dime things just to create something to talk about other than the Super Bowl. Brady explained to the press about what happened and he said all the right things.

When called before the media what he said and what he didn’t are two different things, were really never going to know after this incident the No Fun League (NFL) will make sure one of their minions inflates the balls the proper way for the upcoming Super Bowl and there will be no differential on any of them. As a head coach inflating footballs are one of the things you don’t pay attention to you would assume that sort of thing has been taken care of.

Belichick is coach he has other things to take care of in general and what he’s saying is that he’s been questioned about the air pressure on the footballs and he said you need to talk to my quarterback. Quarterbacks have been doing this for years this is just a higher profile team in a higher profile game there is nothing new about this. I remember in the first four Super Bowls that were strictly AFL versus NFL the AFL ball was made by Spalding.

The ball was slightly slimmer than the NFL football was which was made by Wilson “the Duke” which they still use. It was agreed when the AFL team was on offense they would use an AFL ball or visa versa that’s a different set of circumstances it was worth noting that was sometime ago since they did that. It’s nothing new if a quarterback says he needs a number of balls slightly under inflated to where he could grip it and no one would notice maybe someone got to the ball and fixed it up that way.

Daniel Dullum is covering the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

We get this two week break between the playoffs and the Super Bowl XLIX and what happens is everybody fills time talking about the game on radio and now it’s time to talk about something else because there’s just not enough to talk about in two weeks when there is only one game. So this Deflate Gate has become a sideshow.

This is the thing that people blather on about especially because the Patriots who got caught with the Spy Gate six years ago. This confirms what a lot of people want to believe about the Patriots that Pats head coach Bill Belichick is a big cheater when the Patriots step on the field and he has more to do with that than the players. I don’t agree with that and what the Patriots have done in Spy Gate or Deflate Gate are really all that serious.

What happened in Spy Gate which essentially was a recording of practices it would give someone a slight advantage if you talk to people in the NFL they will tell you that the Pats see the only people doing it they were the only people who got caught doing it. So if it was true that everyone else was doing it or several other teams were doing it I don’t know if that was all that significant a crime.

This deflating of footballs doesn’t have anything to do with the Patriots success and if you watch what they do on the field it’s them executing better than the other team. This Deflate Gate thing didn’t make a difference in the outcome of the game sure deflating a football in bad weather might help your team catch the ball a little bit easier but let’s not forget the Patriots didn’t control which football was out on the field at any given time.

Maybe the Pats got those deflated footballs guess what the Indianapolis Colts got those same exact deflated footballs whatever advantage the Patriots got from having those footballs on the field the Colts got that same exact advantage. Its not something that really benefited anyone it was an even playing field and that everybody got to use a deflated football. People want to talk about it it sounds sensational in the end it doesn’t have a lot of impact of what goes on on the field.

The Pro Bowl is the worst All-Star game in sports: Obviously you would want to have the Super Bowl players in the Pro Bowl if you could if that was an option. The Super Bowl teams are the best teams in the NFL which means there’s going to be a lot of good players that you would like to see play in the Pro Bowl. The real problem is nobody wants to watch the Pro Bowl in the first place.

The Pro Bowl might possibly be the worst All-Star game in professional sports baseball being the best. Because baseball is pretty much exactly like a regular season game. It might be an exhibition, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig might have given the All-Star game the added incentive of deciding which league gets home field advantage in the World Series the All-Star game for baseball is a REAL All-Star game.

Pro football is the exact opposite the hitting isn’t hard, the players are half hearted, half assing it, this is not football and the players play like it. There is not a lot of incentive for these guys to hit each other hard nobody wants to get hurt, the season is over there is nothing on the line. Nobody is going to get paid anymore regardless of the outcome of game, you don’t get any incentives on your contract all you have to do is just make the Pro Bowl.

David Zizmor will be doing NFL commentary leading up to the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl for http://www.sportsradioservice.com please listen to his podcast below

by Daniel Dullum

GLENDALE AZ–Not having the Super Bowl players in this week’s Pro Bowl takes a way from the game even in years past when it was the AFC vs. NFC after the completion of the Super Bowl it was a nice reward for those who were in the Super Bowl it was like a little bonus the players got to go to Hawaii and play one more game and didn’t have to exert themselves too much.

It’s understandable that the NFL was looking to build that one week game but not having the Super Bowl players from either New England or Seattle it robs them of their proper recognition of being All-Stars. For that reason it gives other players a chance to step up but at the same time it takes away a little bit and the way they put the teams together where they have a couple of Hall of Famers due like a mock draft of sorts to chose up sides.

Maybe by having that kind of a format in the Pro Bowl that kind of camouflages not having the Super Bowl players. To be honest the Super Bowl is a bigger deal and that’s the one that you should be focused on having starters and it robs the Super Bowl players of proper recognition. The two different conference championships between the AFC and NFC and we’re hard pressed as someone was saying the other day if anyone would remember a collapse like the Green Bay Packers had last Sunday in the NFC Championship game in the last five minutes against the Seattle Seahawks.

Nobody could really recall such a collapse, I do remember years ago when the Tennessee Oilers had that huge lead against Buffalo and it evaporated through the first half that lead up to the Music City Miracle. That collapsed took the course over two quarters and the Green Bay collapse took place over the course over five minutes. We’ve seen teams lose late in the past, maybe the Packers ran out of gas as for the Patriots they look like old business as usual.

The Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was sharp the Patriots were at their best playing mind games with the Colts as the NFL is investigating allegations that the Patriots took a little bit of air out of the footballs for the Packers the visiting team. There is always a mind game of some sort with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. When we get around to the Super Bowl it’s going to be a great match up I would say the edge would go to the Pats.

The number of players who are either declining to attend or play in this year’s Pro Bowl resonates loudly to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that they want this game to be played in Hawaii from now and not in places like Arizona. For obvious reasons Goodell and the NFL owners they’re waiting for Honolulu to upgrade a little bit with a new stadium there. Goodell and the owners want more luxury boxes at Aloha Stadium for the big shots, the fact is they had the easiest time getting players to show up for the Pro Bowl by moving it to Honolulu since the merger in 1980.

Daniel Dullum is covering the 2015 Pro Bowl all week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com