Breaking News: Brett Favre to the Vikings

I am so tired of this Brett Favre media circus. Every few months we finally start to think it might be over, and then Favre comes out of nowhere with some announcement that sets the sports world on fire. Favre has reportedly agreed to sign with the Minnesota Vikings, pending a physical.

This is his final F You to the Green Bay Packers as he’ll now be with a division rival. Favre will play in Lambeau Field against the Packers and hopes to get his revenge on being poorly treated 2 years ago. Well let’s not forget the mistreatment of Favre’s team last year, the New York Jets. The Jets lose their star QB due to “retirement” and get absolutely nothing in return now that Favre is BACK in the league.

This is a nightmare and Roger Goodell needs to enact some sort of requirement or legislation to get this type of thing to stop. You can have any unhappy player “retire” only to come back the next year for a new team and better attitude? That’s just not right and the exact opposite of being a good sportsman. Favre will be a BUST for Minnesota. His shoulder is NOT healthy enough for a 16 game season not to mention anything in the post season. Vike’s can enjoy their press, ratings, and merchandise cash now, but come December they’ll most likely be watching the playoffs from home like Favre’s last team the Jets were in 2008.

Madden 2010 Trailer

Madden 2010 looks pretty incredible this year. It’s the most realistic version of the game so far as they include things like player interviews on the field, the kicker warming up before big field goal’s, improved crowd shots and all of the other things that go into the sunday TV style presentation.

For more info on how realistic this year’s Madden truly is visit IGN’s developer diary’s:

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14270629/madden-nfl-2010/videos/madden10_trl_producervideo_71009.html

NFL QB Steve McNair Found Shot To Death

Former Titans and Ravens quarterback Steve McNair has been killed. Police said McNair suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head in downtown Nashville.

The incident happened near 2nd South & Lea Ave. Police said it looked like a double homicide. A female victim was also found dead.

New Lions Logo

The 0-16 Detroit Lions are undergoing an “organizational transformation” and the first step to that is a new logo and updated uniform. The logo is pretty similar to what we unveiled a few months back, the uniforms however are pretty much the same with a few tweaks. Usually teams tend to do better with aesthetic changes like this (i.e. bucaneers and bengals) a few years back. We’ll see if that can hold true for the league’s predominant losers the Detroit Lions.

NFL.com has a vid of the new uniform being modeled here.

News and Notes

– John Madden, 73, has announced that he is retiring from the broadcast booth. After a long career as a coach of the Oakland Raiders and a trip to the Hall of Fame, Madden entered the broadcast world and redefined color commentary for the sport. Madden’s voice is synonymous with the sport of football, and his mark on the sport will carry on for generations. Mainly through his video game franchise EA Sport’s “Madden NFL” which will most likely carry on in his name. John Madden’s final game was the Superbowl this past February, a great way to go out, and his voice will be missed.

– AT&T has extended it’s exclusive contract with the iPhone to 2011. This will give the carrier rights to the highly anticipated iPhone 4g. Non AT&T subscribers aren’t going to like this news, but at this point any other carrier is just inferior to the quality of phone’s that AT&T offers.

– Assassin’s Creed 2 has been announced for the PS3 and Xbox 360 for the Holiday season of 2009.

Longer NFL Season?

Finally Roger Goodell is starting to make some sense. There is talk of extending the NFL season to 18 games in 2011. This would benefit the league in every way possible and the only sacrifice would be 2 pre season games, which is no big deal. I am all for this and hope it gets passed. Fox Sports has the story:

Roger Goodell wants the NFL regular season to expand to 17 or 18 games.

The commissioner hopes to have a proposal to present to league owners in May. The matter was discussed at length during the NFL meetings that ended Wednesday.

Goodell said the league has not seriously discussed the subject with its broadcast partners or the players’ union, and nothing could be done without a new labor agreement.

The league now plays a 16-game season. A longer schedule, perhaps by 2011, would mean fewer preseason games. Goodell said the league doesn’t need four exhibition games anymore.

Sports News

– The NFL has announced the first game of the 2009 season. Superbowl champs Pittsburgh Steelers will meet AFC rival Tennessee Titans. Opening kickoff is Thursday night, Sept. 10 on NBC, which also gets the 178th meeting between the Bears and Packers, in Green Bay on Sunday night, Sept. 13.

– Agent Zero’s comeback day is Saturday. Definitely. Perhaps. Maybe. Depending on whom you ask.

Gilbert Arenas used a variety of means Monday to indicate that he could make his season debut for the Washington Wizards this weekend against the Detroit Pistons. “I’m playing Saturday against Detroit,” he said in a text message sent to Comcast SportsNet. Asked if it was really so, the three-time All-Star told a Washington Post reporter at the Verizon Center: “It’s only true if I play on Saturday.” Arenas then told The Washington Times by phone that playing Saturday is “the plan” — but isn’t set in stone.

This is exciting news for Wizards fans as we may actually see Gil play this year even if its for 2-3 weeks.

– And in not so surprising news, Curt Schilling has retired from baseball today, ending a career in which he won World Series titles with the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks and was one of the game’s most dominant pitchers and grittiest competitors. The 42-year-old right-hander said on his blog he’s leaving after 23 years with “zero regrets.” Schilling missed all of last season with a shoulder injury after signing a one-year, $8 million contract. “The things I was allowed to experience, the people I was able to call friends, teammates, mentors, coaches and opponents, the travel, all of it, are far more than anything I ever thought possible in my lifetime,” he wrote.

Schilling had surgery last June and had said he might come back in the middle of this season though he was not under contract. He made no reference to his injury on his blog. He was co-MVP of the 2001 World Series with Randy Johnson while in Arizona. Schilling also won World Series titles with Boston in 2004 and 2007. “Curt had a great career and made a profound impact on the Red Sox, helping to restore the Red Sox’ status as a championship organization,” general manager Theo Epstein said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “He was consistently dominant, and never more so than when it mattered most. Not only for what he did — but for when and how he did it — Curt deserves to be remembered with the all-time greats.”

New Detroit Lions Uniforms

click to enlarge

**UPDATE: The Detroit Lions will hold a press conference Monday, April 20 at Dunham’s Sports in Madison Heights to unveil the team’s comprehensive new brand that includes a new logo, new uniforms and other branding elements. Lions President Tom Lewand will lead in the announcement of the Lions’ new brand. The time for Monday’s press conference is to be determined.**

The above is the rumored new uniforms for the Detroit Lions. CurryPopTart will be following the live press conference on Monday, please check back for updated pictures of uniforms and logos.

Breaking News: Terrell Owens Signs 1 yr Deal w/ The Bills

After only two days as a Free Agent, WR Terrell Owens has signed a 1 year, $6.5 mil contract with the Buffalo Bills. “I’m leaving America’s team [for] North America’s team,” Owens said at a news conference. The Bills will be Owens’ fourth stop. He started with San Francisco, bounced to Philadelphia — where he helped the Eagles get to a Super Bowl — and then to Dallas.

“I must move on, and it’s another beginning for me,” Owens said. “If I can be that extra added piece to get them to the playoffs, then that’s what I’m here for. I looked at the defensive side of ball and offensive side of the ball, and these guys have all the pieces.”

The Bills have been looking for a big receiver to offset the workload of star Lee Evans. With TO in Buffalo, the Bills will have major threats on their offense for QB Trent Edwards. This is a team that TO will be the default leader of and he will undoubtedly be the biggest star that the Bills have ever seen. Time will tell how this decision pans out, but it’s good news for Buffalo fans who finally have something to be excited about.

NFL Free Agency Round Up

What an exciting free agency period for 2009. We’ve seen a ton of shake up’s across the league including a record breaking deal. $100 Million for DT Albert Haynesworth to sign with the Washington Redskins seems like a HUGE gamble, but if there’s one guy with pocket’s deep enough its GM Dan Snyder. Haynesworth is very injury prone and had 5 mediocre seasons before 1-2 good one’s, my intuition tells me this won’t work out for the ‘Skins as much as they hope it will. Resigning DeAngelo Hall and cutting Jason Taylor is good but the key factor is still in question and thats Jason Campbell. The guy just isn’t a championship caliber team and no matter how much they pump up the defense, they need a guy who can make the big plays as QB.

The other big free agent going into the off season was Ray Lewis, or so we thought. Number 52 got a swift dose of reality as the aging linebacker just isn’t in the demand he had hoped he would be. No team showed any real interest and resigning with the Ravens seems to be in his future. Bart Scott meanwhile will be joining Defensive Coach Rex Ryan in New York as he signed a big multi-year deal with the Jets.

The biggest offensive free agent was WR T.J. Houshmanzadeh who was picked up by the Seahawks yesterday for a big 5 year deal. The Housh was dying to get out of last place Cincinatti and find somewhere where he can be the key reciever. Seattle seems to be a good fit for this and it will be interesting to see how he does on the left coast.

Derrick Ward leaves the NYG for Tampa Bay. Tampa cleared up a lot of cap room by cutting Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, Joey Galloway, Ike Hillard, and Cato June.