Archive for January 17th, 2009

WATERCOOLER CHAT: FIRINGS IN NFL, LAKERS VS MAGIC

NFL

Wow, some big news out of the NFL.  The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have fired head coach and general manager Jon Gruden.  Gruden was the talk of the NFL in the early part of the decade for completely turning around the Oakland Raiders franchise.  This notoriety bought him a big contract with Tampa Bay, where he was handed a team built by Tony Dungy.  Gruden even won a Super Bowl his first year with the team, but since then it’s been nothing but mediocrity and some wild card playoff births. Now, after seven seasons, they’ve decided to let him go.  That makes four Super Bowl winning coaches this year who will not return to coach next season.  Gruden (Tampa Bay) Holmgren (Seattle) Dungy (Indianapolis), & Shanahan (Denver).  We’ll have to see if this move pays off for Tampa Bay, and it’ll be interesting to see where Gruden lands.

Elsewhere in the NFL, rumors are floating around that the Chargers might part ways with their star running back, LaDainian Tomlinson. Tomlinson came into the season as the hottest running back in the NFL, and after suffering a bum toe, he had a completely sub-par season.  Not just by his standards… he was objectively very weak this year.  And now it seems that after eight years, Chargers management is realizing their Tomlinson glory run might be over.  And the way Phillip Rivers played this year (AMAZING!), they might be looking to become more of a passing team.  There is no official word on this yet, but LaDainian might want to put his San Diego house on the market.

NBA

It was a battle between two conference leaders.  The Los Angeles Lakers (31-7) and Orlando Magic (31-8).  A game poised to be an offensive showdown.  Kobe Bryant played out of his mind, putting up a triple double — 28 points, 11 assists, and 13 rebounds.  However, it was simply Orlando’s night, and they got one amazing performance from their monster center Dwight Howard.  Howard had 25 points, and, count ’em, 20 rebounds.  He was unstoppable.  Their PG, Jameer  Nelson, also put up a pretty 28 points.  The Lakers had one last chance to tie the game, but Kobe bricked a three, the Magic grabbed the board, and that was that.  Orlando 109, Los Angeles 103.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Finally, Salt Lake City threw a parade for the perfect 13-0 Utah Utes.  The Utes may not have played in the BCS Championship game, but they did finish the season unbeaten, and beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, who were #1 for most of the season.  They have as much of a claim that they’re National Champs as Florida does, and unfortunately, that game will never be played.  However, the state of Utah views its state school as the champs, and decided that a downtown victory parade was absolutely called for.

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