New England Patriots 2012 NFL schedule released

Considering everything that has happened in the last couple of months in the NFL, without a game even having been played, you would be forgiven for thinking the 2012 season happened already. Well, cast aside all side stories, here comes the real thing. Move over Manning, Sean Payton, Tebow and Warren Sapp's bankruptcy hearing. It's time to play some football.

Well, almost!

The 2012 New England Patriot's schedule has been officially released, and there are some cracking story lines in the making hidden amongst the scheduled game dates.

Apart from the obvious Jets games (and one of those is on Thanksgiving), the Patriots travel to London to face St Louis, travel to the Ravens, host Peyton and the Broncos (still doesn't seem real, does it?!), and host Houston and San Francisco, amongst other notable fixtures.

You know what, it actually looks like a pretty decent schedule for Patriots fans to look forward to. Plenty of interesting games, plenty of winnable matchups!


So here we go, without further ado, the 2012 New England Patriots schedule

2012 PATRIOTS PRESEASON SCHEDULE

Date.........................Opponent..............................Time....................TV Coverage
Thurs., Aug. 9.........New Orleans Saints..............7:30 p.m. ET.......Patriots Preseason Network
Mon., Aug. 20..........Philadelphia Eagles..............8:00 p.m. ET.......ESPN (Nationally Televised)
Fri., Aug. 24............at Tampa Bay Buccaneers.....7:30 p.m. ET.......Patriots Preseason Network
Wed., Aug. 29..........at New York Giants...............7:30 p.m. ET.......Patriots Preseason Network

2012 PATRIOTS REGULAR SEASON

Date............................Opponent....................Time.........................Affiliate.........Network
Sunday, Sept. 9..........at Tennessee.................1:00 p.m. ET........WBZ...............CBS
Sunday, Sept. 16........Arizona...........................1:00 p.m. ET........WFXT..............FOX
Sunday, Sept. 23........at Baltimore...................8:20 p.m. ET........WHDH............NBC
Sunday, Sept. 30........at Buffalo........................1:00 p.m. ET........WBZ...............CBS
Sunday, Oct. 7............Denver.............................4:15 p.m. ET.......WBZ...............CBS
Sunday, Oct. 14.........at Seattle........................4:05 p.m. ET........WBZ...............CBS
Sunday, Oct. 21..........New York Jets................4:15 p.m. ET........WBZ...............CBS
Sunday, Oct. 28.........at St. Louis (London)......1:00 p.m. ET........WBZ...............CBS
Sunday, Nov. 4............BYE WEEK
Sunday, Nov. 11..........Buffalo.............................1:00 p.m. ET........WBZ..............CBS
Sunday, Nov. 18..........Indianapolis....................1:00 p.m. ET........WBZ..............CBS*
Thursday, Nov. 22.......at New York Jets.............8:20 p.m. ET.......WHDH...........NBC
Sunday, Dec. 2.............at Miami..........................1:00 p.m. ET........WBZ.............CBS*
Monday, Dec. 10..........Houston..........................8:30 p.m. ET........WCVB...........ESPN
Sunday, Dec. 16...........San Francisco................8:20 p.m. ET........WHDH...........NBC*
Sunday, Dec. 23...........at Jacksonville...............1:00 p.m. ET........WBZ..............CBS*
Sunday, Dec. 30...........Miami..............................1:00 p.m. ET........WBZ..............CBS*



Linkage

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

Boston Red Sox lose on Patriots Day after umpire Larry Vanover calls an amazing no-strike, strike-out looking to end game

Roll up, roll up, come one and all! Feast your eyes on the amazing, the incredible, no-strike, strike-out looking that ended the final game of the Boston v Tampa series today at Fenway!

Boston went into Patriots Day with plenty of issues hanging in the air. However, nobody will be bothered talking about Bobby Valentine and Kevin Youkilis after this one. Let's set the scene. Fantastic pitchers duel between Daniel Bard and James Shields. Tampa eek out one single run and go into the ninth clinging to a 1-0 lead. With two away, runners on and Cody Ross at the plate, Tampa's closer Fernando Rodney labored to get the ball across home plate, or, did he? To the fans at the park and those watching on TV, Rodney wasn't even close. To home plate umpire Larry Vanover, he was right down the pipe.

Have a look yourself. Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy, who usually says it like it is, murmured post game ''I don't think one of those pitches were a strike'' and Remy was very much more accurate than the blue on the day, Vanover. Check the below out, and bear in mind, Ross did not offer at any one of these pitches, which are all clearly off the plate.

In case you think this is Boston-bias, the Rays broadcast team, looking at their own pitch tracker, laughed and called it "close enough." That's right Vanover, you reduced an otherwise epic pitching duel to a laughing matter. Who knows if Boston might have turned the obvious walk into the required run, but thanks to Vanover, we will never get a fair chance to know. Vanover took the bat out of Ross's hands, he took the life out of the game, and he screwed the 37,000 paid entrants, and the millions watching on TV or online. The fans, the players, the game of baseball all deserve an apology from Vanover.

You know what, what is the point in playing the nine preceding innings if you aren't going to get a fair chance when the game is on the line? Absolutely disgraceful showing from Vanover, who should donate his game check to charity or something.

He sure as hell doesn't deserve it.

Linkage

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

Skeletons coming out of the closet: Latest in the Bobby Petrino posse - Alison Melder

Alison Melder and Bobby Petrino

Isn’t this whole Bobby Petrino thing starting to feel a little Tiger-Woodsish?

Move over Jessica Dorrell, there's a new mistress in town! Up to now the focus on former Arkansas Razorbacks coach Bobby Petrino's "illicit" relationship has been Jessica Dorrell, however the exposure of Petrino's phone records via the Freedom of Information Act has moved attention to another potentially inappropriate dalliance.

Modern technology, isn’t it great? The content of Petrino's text messages, still available on his business cellphone, were obtained by the Associated Press, through a Freedom of Information Act request. Several websites have taken the time to trawl through the entire record and pick out the juicer elements. One of the repeat phone numbers in the list was that of model Alison Melder.



Here are the raw details. At various junctures in September, October, and November 2011, Melder and Petrino exchanged at least 200 text messages. There were no phone calls (not with that phone anyway). The messages begin appearing on 12th September, the first day for which phone records are available. They continue until 6th November. There were seven picture messages sent, all from Melder to Petrino. One can only hypothesize on the content of same.

Add caption

If you are into trawling through people’s phone records, you can, thanks to the joys of the freedom of information act, view the relevant documentation right here

Melder is an interesting character, to say the least. She has been, at different junctures of her life, a model and her LinkedIn profile lists her as a senate assistant with the Republican Party of Arkansas. Interestingly the Republican Party begs to differ, and any reference to her name has been scrubbed off the relevant websites. Back to the modeling, one profile she created four years ago contains a portfolio of bikini and lingerie images.

Melder, judging by the profile, doesn’t seem to really know what she wants in life (check out the snapshot from her profile below, nudes or no nudes, that is the question!). Maybe Petrino was her sage ‘guide’ type figure. Perhaps those 7 pictures she sent him were snap shots of theological quandaries the now 26 year old was facing.

Or maybe they were just her in skimpy lingerie. Your guess is as good as ours.



And so the Bobby Petrino story gets that little bit more salacious, that little bit murkier. What next? Are we about to get treated to a stream of models, waitresses and other assorted women coming forward as with Tiger Woods?

For now, the Petrino Posse stands at two, but, watch this space.

Links:

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

Ozzie Guillen suspended for five games by the Miami Marlins

Well now, apparently the first amendment is becoming a distant memory to some. The Miami Marlins have suspended manager Ozzie Guillen for five games for comments he made to Time magazine in which he has been perceived to have made favorable comments on Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Three major issues with this ridiculous sentencing.

First off, and the most simple issue, English is not Guillen’s natural language, and it would appear the reported comment has been taken out of context. Guillen told Time magazine, for an article published last week, that he 'loves' Castro and respects him for staying in power for so long. This was buried amongst other less inflammatory comments, and Guillen has since tried to clarify the situation by stating repeatedly that he does not admire Castro. He said when the comments were made, he was talking about how he was surprised Castro was able to remain in power so long, given the number of people he has harmed.

He has stressed, and this for me is the crucial aspect; "The interpretation didn't come out as I wanted," Guillen said in Spanish "I was thinking in Spanish and I said the wrong thing in English."

Straight off the bat, Guillen should get a ‘pass’ on this one.

Secondly, it would appear Guillen is being punished for expressing admiration for a world leader. Doesn’t matter what you think of his politics, all Guillen was doing was expressing admiration for the length of his stay in power. He didn’t slander anyone. He wasn’t using hate speech. He was expressing a pretty mundane opinion.

Why is Guillen being suspended for five games (an extremely steep suspension) when Jason Whitlock was not suspended for one second for using a disgraceful racial stereotype in describing Jeremy Lin earlier in the NBA season? Whitlock was not fined or suspended, despite the fact his disgraceful comment was nothing short of disgusting, racially motivated and extremely ugly.

Thirdly, and finally, the United States constitution protects its people from punishment or persecution around the area of free speech, It is one of the most important sections of the constitution, and the Miami Marlins, in their stern, unwarranted actions, are in direct opposition of the constitution.

Ozzie Guillen is a clever, successful, intelligent man, an entertaining man, with his own opinions on the state of the world and world affairs. His crime would appear to be honesty and a willingness to speak his mind. He hasn’t used hate-speech, he hasn’t been disrespectful or rude, he simply spoke his opinion and that opinion appears to also have been taken somewhat out of context.

There should be absolutely no issue here, and yet Guillen has been suspended for five games, whilst others who make far more serious statements roam the Internet, free to peddle their ignorant brand of nasty hate speech.

This is not what the founding fathers had in mind when they gave the United States the First Amendment, and its populace the freedom of expression and thought that, supposedly, US troops are wandering the four corners of the globe protecting.

Links.

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

It’s official: Detroit Tigers named the fattest professional sports team in sports history

There were wild celebrations all around the City of Detroit today, after the Tigers were officially named ‘The Fattest Professional Sports Team in the History of Sports’. The news came hot on the heels of the Tigers exciting win against the Boston Red Sox, and further enlivened a City already rejoicing with a great start to their MLB season.

‘’Yeah man I am really excited about this.’’ Prince Fielder said after the game against Boston, as he chowed down on an after game spread of Lobster stuffed with truffles, Cheeseburgers and Barbequed Swordfish. ‘’You know I gotta holla at my boys though, didn’t do this on my own, man. Dotel, Valverde, Cabs and Bo Bo. Did you boys even know Dotel was 230lbs?!’’

Fielder was of course referring to Octavio Dotel, the relief pitcher who weighed 180lbs when he was with the Mets, and now hovers somewhere between 230 and 240 depending whether you believe a team’s media guide or not.

Valverde - 254 lbs

The Tigers grabbed the award with an incredible ten players weighing in over 220lbs. That might not raise eyebrows in a city like Dallas, Texas, or Birmingham Alabama, where the average weight of an adult male is now over 300lbs, however in Detroit, this is indeed a ‘big’ deal.


The top dogs of the Tigers ‘fat’ list are of course Miguel ‘Carbs’ Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Jose Valverde, who’s listed media guide weight is 254lbs, however Prince Fielder was heard to jest, as he lifted the trophy for fattest team, ‘Last time Valverde was 254lbs his momma was still making his lunch for school!’

Oh no he did-ent.

Valverde, a quirky closer, literally has a belly so big it is hanging over his baseball pants belt. Cabrera made a highlight play during the game last night where he stumbled, tripped, fell backwards and still caught the ball. A slimmer man may have injured himself doing same.

When asked about the award Justin Verlander, a hefty 225lbs, mentioned that it was really a team effort, and paid particular credit to some of the ‘other’ guys, not just Fielder, Valverde and Cabrera. ‘Hey you know what, we were all in this together, no way we tilt the scale in our favour without Delmon and Brennan’. The ace was of course referring to Delmon Young and Brennan Boesch, Detroit’s starting corner outfielders, who weigh in at 240lbs and 235lbs respectively.


When asked about his contribution Delmon Young appeared quite angry, demanding the team adjust his listed 240lbs. ‘Dude, the last time I was 240lbs, I was still a virgin!’.

He calmed down however when asked about receiving the award in person. ‘’Man I’m just looking forward to when the people from Sports History get here, ‘cause I hear they’re gonna have like, an all you can eat buffet going’’

So, more great news for the city of Detroit, a city where a staggering one third of the populace are listed as below the standard poverty line, there is a 20% City unemployment rate, and the average annual income for a household of four is just below $20,000 dollars. We did not leave a '0' out. That's accurate. $20 grand. A year. A city where there has been an increase in 18-25% on demand for food from food banks and soup kitchens in the last five years.

There are literally thousands of people lining up to get free food in Detroit, because they do not have the means to feed themselves.

At least their professional baseball team has a squad that averages 215lbs a player in weight (5325 lbs divided by their 25 man squad, including several skinny 170/180lb types), and $4,075,000 a year in salary (including several bit-part players who earn between $400 and $600 thousand a year, bringing the average down dramatically).

God bless America.

Links.

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

On those new NFL Nike jerseys - the kid that made yours got paid $1.25 today

Is it just me or is this mammoth Nike takeover of all the NFL jerseys a little creepy? In fact, very creepy. Whatever about the whole ‘market monopoly’ aspect, we all know where these things are being made, right? Clue: There is no merry band of elves working away in comfortable, air conditioned factories with cheeseburger lunch breaks and free milkshake vending machines. We’re not talking a working-condition Utopia here.

The last 24 hours pretty much my entire Facebook news feed has been flooded with NFL fan friends urging me to check out their respective favorite teams new threads. The glossy, airbrushed pictures are kind of detached and alien for starters. Rather than the ridiculous, shredded, ripped, CGI type characters the NFL and NIKE are portraying the jerseys in, frankly I would be more interested in seeing how one fits over Vince Wilfork’s ample frame.

Back to the issue at hand, it is absolutely amazing how easily we all gloss over the whole Nike sweatshop thing. Don’t worry, I am not absolving myself of blame here (although I have made a concerted effort to switch from Nike to Adidas particularly in the last decade or so), but we all need to take a step back and remember where these glossy, shiny, fancy new jerseys are coming from.

Kind of makes you reconsider how bad your 9-5 is, no?

Perhaps most disgusting of all is the price hike Nike are gleefully attaching to the new threads. Reebok sold the average NFL jersey for $60. In this time of recession, families being turned out on the street, houses being repossessed and entire communities stricken by high unemployment rates, Nike see fit to raise the price of their NFL jersey to $100.

Absolutely shocking greed.

Whats worse is the incredible profit they are making on each piece, because, as we dig a little deeper, we see how cheap it is for Nike to produce them.

On average, the person that made that fancy new Nike NFL jersey you are salivating over was paid $1.25 a day for doing so. Have a think about that for a second. Considering most of them work seven days a week, that’s $8.75 a week, $35 a month or $420 a year. If the average person that made that NFL jersey you are considering buying saved their entire wages for a year they would be able to afford four of those same jerseys.

If you are one of those ignorant Muppets that believes that $1.25 is a good salary in a third world country, incorrect. In July 2000 Jim Keady, a researcher who has campaigned against Nike’s slavery shops, lived with Nike factory workers in Indonesia. He reported that

‘’ I lived in conditions they lived in and on the wages they paid - $1.25 a day. I lost 25lbs in a month in a rat-infested slum in Tangerang, Indonesia, home to tens of thousands of the women and men who produce the Nike sneakers adored by so many athletes and consumers.’’

For those of you who think Nike is actively trying to make things better in its sweatshops, Keady has this to say;

"I was in Indonesia as recently as August 2009 and in my meetings with workers I heard all too familiar stories of inadequate wages, forced overtime, illegal firings for union organizing, workers being cheated out of pay, etc."

Those are the facts. This isn’t a viral charity campaign, this isn’t a syrupy, ‘Oh those poor people’ story. These are facts.

How do you feel about wearing a jersey that someone got paid a buck twenty five to make?

Makes you feel kind of slimy, no?

Links.

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central

Troy Tulowitzki v Ubaldo Jimenez - the first base-brawl of the 2012 MLB season - VIDEO

That's right, the season hasn't even started as yet, however the first bench clearing brawl of the burgeoning 2012 MLB season occurred yesterday in the Spring training matchup between the Rockies and the Indians.

Ubaldo Jimenez says he won’t apologize to Troy Tulowitzki after hitting his former teammate in the left elbow with a pitch. Rumours are yet to be substantiated they might be meeting behind the bike shed at the back of school to finish the brawl after school.

“I shouldn’t be suspended,” Jimenez argued. “Players are hit by pitches every day. With a guy like him, you have to go inside. I can’t get the ball to go where I want every time.”

Sure, that's fine, and having thrown a billion pitches myself, of course every once in a while a pitch gets away, and an ego and a backside or two gets bruised. However, Jiminez's ridiculous macho posturing after throwing the offending pitch was definitely something he had control over.

Normally batters charge the mound after such instance, instead in this case Jimenez charged the plate.

Here is some excellent amateur footage of the brawl.

Maybe we shouldn't be so shocked at Jimenez's wildness, though. Two years ago, Jimenez was 15-1 for the Rockies at the All-Star break, and an NL starter for the midsummer classic. He has gone 14-20 since. He was not sharp this spring, going 1-4 with a 7.43 ERA. In seven Cactus League starts, he had as many walks as strikeouts, 15, indicating some level of wildness.

The real clue to Jimenez's idiotic actions might be found from comments he made recently to The Denver Post that he was upset he didn't receive a contract extension while Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez got new deals. Jimenez was traded by Colorado to the Indians last summer.

Then again, maybe it was just that he is awful, and awfully angry. Jimenez gave up six runs on four hits and five walks in 4 1-3 innings in the game.

Either way, Rockies manager Jim Tracy was extremely upset. "Five days before Opening Day, you're going to take a pot shot like that? It's the worst I've ever seen," Tracy said. "I've lost all respect for him, and that's a very difficult thing for me to say with all the players I've had to manage over the years."

Finally, fantasy baseball owners who spent early round draft picks or big auction dollars on Troy Tulowitzki can breathe easy. Despite his left elbow being swollen and wrapped, Troy Tulowitzki felt confident that he'd be ready for opening day. X-rays were negative, and 'Tulo' should be back in the lineup soon

Links.

• Contact Cormac
• From the Bleachers on Irish Central
• Irish Central