Shawn Springs: According to Shalise Manza Young of the Providence Journal free agent cornerback Shawn Springs is expected to sign with the New England Patriots. Springs had visited with the Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles. Springs had played the last 5 seasons for the Washington Redskins after 7 with the Seattle Seahawks.. In 157 career games (140 starts), Springs has made 675 tackles and 8.5 sacks. He has also made 32 interceptions, returning two for touchdowns. [Projo Pats Blog]

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According to Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes, Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers have come to terms on a 2-year, $45 million contract. Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reports that there is still some way to go as far as the finalization of the contract.

Of course with Scott Boras being Manny’s agent, nothing is ever done until the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed.

“We are in discussions and we have no deal in place,” Boras said.

Hopefully for the Dodgers’ sake that this deal gets done. If it doesn’t ended up happening, I can totally see the Dodgers walking away from Manny.

Plus it’s not like Manny’s a big fan of spring training. He could probably play one game and be ready for the season.

Sources: Manny, Dodgers close in [ESPN.com]

Now that March is upon us, UConn is gearing up for the Big East and NCAA Tournaments that are just around the corner. In celebration of this time of year, Coke Zero is calling on fans from UConn and around the country to demonstrate their passion for their favorite college basketball team and giving them the chance to be featured in a new TV commercial debuting during the NCAA championship game.

Between now and the NCAA Men’s Final Four, fans can log onto the Coke Zero “March Madabase” — http://www.tastethemadness.com — to upload their craziest and most fanatical videos/photos supporting their favorite NCAA college basketball team. There are no UConn videos yet, so check out this one of St. John’s fans as an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrEFKFP_Q5Q

The best fan submitted entries will be featured nationally in a new Coke Zero ad airing immediately prior to tipoff during the championship game on April 6th. Coke Zero has made just two of these before – take a look at the Kansas one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVtLBzX1fic

Visit the official “Taste the Madness” site to upload and view videos/photos from colleges around the country: http://www.tastethemadness.com

After missing the last part of the regular season with some back issues, Boston Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew’s back is acting up again as he was sent back to Boston on Sunday for another round of injections. This does appear to be the same issue that bothered him last season.

“The reason we did it was kind of precautionary,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “We have some time right now because it is so early in March and J.D., through getting looked at with some different people, thought this could be of benefit to him. If it worked, we thought, ‘good’ and if it didn’t seem to do anything, ok, it’s March 2 or 3. If he reports last night and is here today and says it worked, that’s great, ok, that’s good news. I just think we did it if we run into a problem later this year, we know where to go.”

Backs can be a troubling thing, trust me on that one. Back injuries never seem to go away and usually linger. Sometimes it can just take sleeping wrong to cause the problem to act up again. So you can imagine what swinging a bat will do.

Like Francona said, it’s still early in spring training but as we get closer to the season we can only hope that Drew’s back is better. We’re already down Mark Kotsay to start the season and Rocco Baldelli won’t be able to play every day.

Back to injections for Drew… [Full Count]

J.D.’s back is back [Extra Bases]

Drew receives injection [Projo Sox Blog]

Update 1:15 PM: NESN’s Heidi Watney spoke exclusively with J.D. Drew and Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe provides us with the transcript. The interview will air tonight on NESN SportsDesk.

Digger, the animated alter-ego to FOX’s Gopher Cam, now has his own show. Here is the third episode.

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8jaef_the-adventures-of-digger-and-friend_sport[/dailymotion]

If you missed episode 1, click here and episode 2, click here.

Our friends over at Rush The Court will be holding a live blog of tomorrow’s UConn Huskies men’s basketball game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at 2 PM.

They have invited UConn fans to stop by on Saturday to leave comments and questions on the live-blog, the best of which they will be taking into the locker room and media interviews.

Since I won’t be around I won’t be able to make it but I do hope that some SOX & Dawgs readers and UConn fans can stop by to participate.

RTC Live: Notre Dame at #2 UConn – Saturday 2 PM ET [Rush The Court]

Since last Saturday’s incident with a “local reporter”, we’ve seen UConn Huskies head coach Jim Calhoun be chastised about his actions and words.

We’ve had the governor of Connecticut say it was an “embarrassing display” and just yesterday we had two legislators here in this great state (sarcasm) want Calhoun to be reprimanded. With the economic climate the state faces, I can understand their disdain for the situation.

But they need to be realistic. Calhoun was ambushed by this “local reporter”. The question about the salary while it was a fair enough question to be asked, asking the question in a postgame press conference after a game where his team didn’t play it’s best is not the best place to do it.

What the “local reporter” could have done was just get Calhoun in a little more intimate environment to ask the question. The “local reporter” has even admitted to ambushing Calhoun during the press conference (I refuse to mention his name or link to where I saw that). So what does that tell you. This crackpot just wanted the attention and now he’s gotten it.

Hopefully this is end of it all. The poor guy gets the 800th win of his career on Wednesday night and here we are talking about some stupid incident rather than what a great coach he is and what 800 wins means.

But  since it hasn’t died down, we now have some statements from the UConn president Michael Hogan, UConn AD Jeff Hathaway and Calhoun that can be found after the jump.

Continue reading →

Tom Brady Marries Gisele: According to a report in Us Weekly, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen were married today in Los Angeles. Neither of their reps will confirm the details. This is the first marriage for both of them. Brady’s son John Edward Thomas Moynahan was also in attendance. [Us Weekly]

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8i9ii_five-good-minutes-with-geno-auriemm_sport[/dailymotion]