2012 February at LinesMaker

Report: Manningham’s Days With Giants All but Done

Three weeks ago, Mario Man­ning­ham had three crit­i­cal catches in one of the most impor­tant dri­ves in Giants history. It now appears increas­ingly likely they will be the last three recep­tions of his career in New York. Man­ning­ham has “vir­tu­ally no chance” to return to the Giants and is expected to fol­low for­mer Giants’ assis­tant Mike Sul­li­van to the Buc­ca­neers, accord­ing to CBSSports.com. Sul­li­van was named the Bucs’ new offen­sive coor­di­na­tor ear­lier this month. Man­ning­ham, 25, fell to third on the wide receiver depth chart in New... 

Pac-12 Commissioner: College Football Playoff on the Way

Well, I think it’s safe to say that his qual­i­fies as big news. Accord­ing to Pac-12 com­mis­sioner Larry Scott, col­lege foot­ball could have a play­off sys­tem in place as early as the 2014 season. Yes, play­off pro­po­nents, your years of whin­ing and com­plain­ing may soon pay off, as it seems as though the powers-that-be in col­lege foot­ball are mov­ing toward the adop­tion of a four-team foot­ball playoff-the Final Four of foot­ball, if you will. Scott broke the news in an inter­view with New York Times col­lege foot­ball writer Pete Thamel. What does this news... 

El Padrino Wins Risen Star Stakes

NEW ORLEANS — Favorite El Padrino edged Mark Valeski in a close fin­ish to win the Grade-2 $ 300,000 Risen Star Stakes on Sat­ur­day, the final prep for the Louisiana Derby. Nei­ther horse was sep­a­rated by more than a neck for most of the final stretch, leav­ing the rest of the field of 11 up the track. El Padrino, trained by Todd Pletcher, paid $ 3.60, $ 2.80 and $ 2.20. It was his third win in five career races and his first in a graded race. He went off as the 3–5 favorite, and jockey Javier Castel­lano coaxed just enough out of him to jus­tify those odds. “You... 

Coyotes Win to Take First Place in Pacific Division

The Phoenix Coy­otes have not lost in reg­u­la­tion this month. That’s why when they went to sleep Sat­ur­day night, they were in sole pos­ses­sion of first place in the Pacific Division. Phoenix would be the No. 3 seed in the West­ern Con­fer­ence if the sea­son ended today thanks to its 3–1 win at Edmon­ton on Sat­ur­day after­noon, com­bined with San Jose’s 6–2 loss at Nashville later in the evening. That com­bi­na­tion allowed the Coy­otes to move two points ahead of the Sharks, who still have two in games in hand. “We talked about mak­ing Feb­ru­ary a big... 

Irsay Says He and Peyton Have “Communicated Frequently”

Irsay says he and Pey­ton have “com­mu­ni­cated frequently” Posted by Mike Flo­rio on Feb­ru­ary 25, 2012, 10:23 PM EST With all eyes back on Indy for the sec­ond time in less than a month, Colts owner Jim Irsay con­tin­ues to “keep it in house” regard­ing Pey­ton Man­ning by “putting it on Twitter.” Irsay’s lat­est Peyton-related post goes a lit­tle some­thing like this: “Not sure why some spec­u­late that Pey­ton n I haven’t met in per­son recently..we’ve met in per­son n com­mu­ni­cated fre­quently n last week or so.” The broader ques­tion... 

Former NFL Star Owens Scores 3 TDs in First IFL Game

For­mer NFL wide receiver Ter­rell Owens caught three passes for 53 yards and three touch­downs in his Indoor Foot­ball League debut on Saturday. Owens’ Allen Wran­glers won 50–30 against the Wichita Wild in the Wran­glers’ largest crowd ever, accord­ing to ESPNDallas.com. Owens said he thought he “did all right” but that the team should have scored more. “I’ve always prided myself on being a play­maker, whether it’s [in] this league or the NFL,” Owens told the website. Owens joined the Wran­glers as a player and co-owner after being unable to catch on with an NFL team... 

Red Raiders Give LB the Boot

Red Raiders give LB the boot Posted by John Tay­lor on Feb­ru­ary 25, 2012, 10:19 PM EST Already deal­ing with injuries a week into spring prac­tice, Texas Tech has suf­fered some addi­tional attri­tion for an entirely dif­fer­ent reason. Accord­ing to the Lub­bock Avalanche-Journal, line­backer Cqulin Hubert has been dis­missed from the Red Raiders foot­ball pro­gram. The rea­son for the dis­missal was, of course, the ever-popular “unspec­i­fied vio­la­tions of team rules”. Hubert was con­sid­ered a lead­ing con­tender for a start­ing job. As a sopho­more... 

Ryan Zimmerman and Nationals Still Discussing Contract Extension

Ryan Zim­mer­man and Nation­als still dis­cussing con­tract extension D.J. Short Feb 25, 2012, 11:05 PM EST 6 Comments UPDATE: Rizzo told Zuck­er­man that “enough progress has been made” to where there’s a belief that a deal will be final­ized at some point Sat­ur­day night or early Sun­day morning. 10:57 PM: Zim­mer­man said in an emailed state­ment late Sat­ur­day night that he’s “con­fi­dent” about reach­ing an agree­ment with the Nation­als. It’s not known whether that means the dead­line has been extended. 1:16 PM: Accord­ing to Mark Zuck­er­man... 

Report: Packers Won’t Use Tag to Set Up Trade of Flynn

The Green Bay Pack­ers are not likely to use the fran­chise tag on backup quar­ter­back Matt Flynn in order to engi­neer a sign-and-trade sce­nario, accord­ing to a report by ESPN Milwaukee. The report did not cite any sources. The­o­ret­i­cally, Green Bay could apply the fran­chise tag to Flynn and then trade him rather than sim­ply let­ting him become a free agent. That would be allowed by the league, though not encour­aged. Teams have until March 5 to use the fran­chise tag. “(The Pack­ers) don’t do busi­ness that way,” a league source told the website. It’s pro­hib­ited... 

Jets’ Tannenbaum Says Sanchez Must Get Better Faster

New York Jets gen­eral man­ager Mike Tan­nen­baum wants to see bet­ter play out of embat­tled quar­ter­back Mark Sanchez next season. When asked at the NFL Scout­ing Com­bine whether or not Sanchez had shown suf­fi­cient improve­ment last sea­son, Tan­nen­baum told “NBC Sport­sTalk” there is still room to grow. “Not enough,” Tan­nen­baum said, per ProFootballTalk.com. “Not consistently. “You know, he needs to play bet­ter. The great thing about Mark is he’d be the first one to tell you that. We’re excited he’s our start­ing quar­ter­back. He’s done a...