The New England Patriots announced that they have placed linebacker Pierre Woods on season-ending injured reserve with a jaw injury. To take his place on the roster, they have signed offensive lineman Dan Connolly to the active roster from their practice squad.
Woods suffered a jaw injury in the loss to the Steelers back on November 30th. Woods played in 12 games (3 starts) and had 35 tackles and 1 sack.
Reporting In From Game On [Center Field]
The 2nd Annual Fang’s Bites College Football TV Awards [Fang’s Bites]
Sabathia signing renews Sox-Yankees rivalry [Red Sox Monster]
The Cashman-Headwarmer Dialogues: Haven’t We Been Here Before? [Surviving Grady]
Theo Speaks To The Nation [Fenway West]
Happy Trails, Daniel [Oriole Post]
A sneak peek at Omar Minaya’s notebook [The ‘Ropolitans]
BBWAA Adds 4 More Internet Writers, Fends Off Total Irrelevance for Now [Ump Bump]
Zack And Shiancoe Make A Porno [Deadspin]
USC Song Girls Need These Moves In Routine [Busted Coverage]
Cole Hamels Speaks the Truth: “For the Past Two Years, [The Mets] Have Been Choke Artists.” [The Big Lead]
Video: Terrell Owens Red Nosed Interview [You Been Blinded]
The Complete Marisa Miller Web Gallery Index [Coed Magazine]
John Madden Thinks The Cowboys’ Announcing Booth Is The Best In The Business Because Of Its Toilet [Awful Announcing]
Our video goodness this week is Episode 9 of Mayne Street. Look for everyone’s favorite office linebacker, Terry Tate, in the video.
UConn Huskies women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma announced that Heather Buck may redshirt this year. Buck did return to practice yesterday after missing time with mononucleosis.
Geno Auriemma calls Sunday’s appearance in the Maggie Dixon Classic “an honor” for the Huskies.
Assistant coach Shea Ralph instructed the guards to shoot extra after practice while she’s away on a recruiting trip.
Athlon Sports has ranked Donald Brown as the top fantasy running back for the bowl games.
Stanley Robinson is ready to return to the UConn men’s basketball team after taking the semester off.
Former UConn Husky Ray Allen led some of his Celtics teammates on a visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. while the team was there.
Mike Anthony of the Hartford Courant is happy to see “Sticks” back with the Huskies.
The UConn women’s hockey team returns to action on Sunday with a home game against the Harvard Crimson.
As always, Fitzy’s videos are NSFW.
Where will Mark Teixiera end up?
We all know the Boston Red Sox would love to sign Mark Teixeira to a contract. What we don’t know is how long or the amount of the contract that they offered him during the recent Baseball Winter Meetings in Las Vegas.
We do know that the Baltimore Orioles have an offer of 7 years, $140-150 million and the Washington Nationals have an offer of 8 years, $160-180 million on the table. It’s not known if the New York Yankees have made him an offer but they do remain interested.
Last night, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim GM Tony Reagins confirmed that they have offered Teixeira an 8 year contract but he didn’t specify the dollar amount. It is believed to at least match the Nationals offer.
“It was made during our conversations [with agent Scott Boras] at the Winter Meetings,” Reagins told MLB.com, having returned home to Southern California from Las Vegas. “We have a proposal in place for eight years. The specific dollar amount, I won’t get into that.”
The Angels already lost one of their backup plans when Raul Ibanez signed a 3-year deal with the Philadelphia Phillies yesterday and it seems as though they’ve pinned their hopes on re-signing Teixeira.
We know that Teixeira has said he wants to sign his contract by Christmas so it’s only a matter of time before we learn where Teixeira is playing next season. Of course, I hope he’ll be wearing a Red Sox uniform.
Most people go to Hawaii to enjoy the sun and the surf or even get married. Boston Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima has other plans though as he plans to run in the Honolulu Marathon on Sunday.
Race spokesman Pat Bigold says it will be Okajima’s first marathon. The lefty will wear No. 37, which is his number for the Red Sox.
Okajima, who turns 33 on Christmas Day, is among 23,000 runners entered in the 26.2 mile race with about 60 percent of the field from his native Japan.
Usually we hear of athletes wives partaking in these types of things. Obviously Okajima has been keeping busy training for the marathon.
UPDATE: I missed this from Amalie Benjamin yesterday.
The Red Sox were surprised to learn that lefthanded reliever Hideki Okajima will be running in the Honolulu Marathon Sunday. One team official said the Sox were not pleased and would have discouraged him had the team been apprised of his decision.
The wins keep coming for the Boston Celtics as they made it 14 straight in a 94-82 win over the New Orleans Hornets in front of another full house at the TD BankNorth Garden.
The 14 straight wins ties a franchise record set back during the 1985-86 season.
Before the game, the Celtics presented James Posey with his NBA Championship ring. Posey bolted from Boston during free agency signing a 4-year deal with the Hornets.
After falling behind by 8 points early in the game, the Green came back to tie the game at 21 at the end of the 1st. They then got out to a 6 point lead before the Hornets took a 1 point lead at the half.
The Celtics then used a 17-5 run to put the game away as they would never trail again in the game. The Hornets did make it interesting in the 4th quarter when they cut a Celtics 14 point lead to 7 points but the Celtics would score the final 5 points of the game.
Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 28 points and added 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Kevin Garnett chipped in with a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds while Rajon Rondo added 10 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Former UConn Husky Ray Allen, Kendrick Perkins and Eddie House all had 9 points as well for the Green.
The Hornets were paced by David West’s 23 points and 14 rebounds. Chris Paul added 20 points, 6 rebounds and 14 assists while another former UConn Husky, Hilton Armstrong, had 8 points and 4 rebounds.
The Celtics return to action on Monday night when Deron Williams and the Utah Jazz come to Boston. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM.
The Boston Globe’s Daigo Fujiwara cites a Nikkan Sports article that the Boston Red Sox have made a 3-year, $21 million offer to Japanese free agent Kenshin Kawakami.
Kawakami’s agent Dan Evans reportedly said that he discussed his client with 28 teams and was quoted as saying, “It is now up to Kawakami.” Nikkan notes that the Sox’ offer seems to be higher than other teams.
If this is true and he decides to sign with the Red Sox, he would be the 4th Japanese pitcher in the organization joining Daisuke Matszuaka, Hideki Okajima and Junichi Tazawa.
UPDATE 10:20 PM: Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe is reporting that the Red Sox have NOT made an offer to Kawakami.
According to a baseball source, the report by Nikkan Sports that the Sox have a three-year, $21 million offer out to Japanese pitcher Kenshin Kawakami is not accurate. The Sox apparently have not made an offer to Kawakami.
I’m sure we’ll find out more in the morning.
The Boston Red Sox have decided not to tender a contract to catcher Kevin Cash, making him a free agent. They did tender 2009 contracts to the other 28 players that are unsigned at this time.
With Cash not being signed, the Red Sox now have 3 catchers on their 40-man roster, George Kottaras, Dusty Brown and Mark Wagner. And just because the Red Sox didn’t tender Cash a contract doesn’t mean he can’t re-sign with them, they just don’t have to go through the arbitration process with him.
Cash played in 61 games for the Red Sox last season, most of them as Tim Wakefield’s personal catcher. He hit .225 with 3 home runs and 15 RBIs.
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com is reporting that the New York Yankees and free agent pitcher A.J. Burnett have reached a preliminary agreement on a 5-year, $82.5 million contract.
While Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and Burnett’s agent, Darek Braunecker are still negotiating final contract terms, the deal is expected to be complete once Burnett passes a physical exam, the source said.
When the signing of Burnett is official, the Yankees will have spent $243.5 million on two pitchers to help their beleaguered rotation out. Right now, without any more signings the Yankees rotation will be Sabathia, Burnett, Chien-Mien Wang, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy/Phillip Hughes.
This one scares me a little bit because I was hoping Burnett would land in Atlanta. He has owned the Boston Red Sox in his career going 5-0 in 8 starts with a 2.56 ERA.