UMFan83

I'm pretty sure that the NHL played an exhibition game outdoors in Las Vegas within the last 10 years. This is what lead me to believe they could play a game with the temps in the 50's Edit: It was 1991. Temps were in the mid 80's when the game was being played. Now an exhibition is different than a regular season game but it can be done. I'm sure technology has improved enough over the last 20 years that it could happen. So there people who mocked my idea.

I know there is a ton of good college football on and I've been watching plenty, but I can't help but get into the Winter Classic game every year. This one between the Flyers and Rangers has been good. That said, the novelty is surely being lost quickly. Every game except for the Wrigley Field game has been played in the Northeast (Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Boston and Philadelphia). They need to do something bold to keep the interest high, like play the game in a western market, possibly even a warm weather city. Not something like LA where there would be a ton of issues, but how about a San Jose-LA Kings game at AT&T Park in San Fran? I know San Jose is only loosely affiliated with San Jose, but I think that would be an awesome way to showcase two west coast teams at a relatively unique ballpark. Plus, San Fran really isn't all that warm in the winter, and the temp at game time would probably be in the low 50's Some other choices would be Avalanche-Red Wings at Invesco Field, or Stars-whoever at Cowboys Stadium (or if thats not outdoor enough, Ballpark in Arlington.) I don't think Dallas gets all that warm in the winter either. They could also include Canada into it and do away with the Heritage Classic. Two bolder options would be to try to pull it off in a warm weather city like LA or Phoenix, or changing the format and instead of a regular season game, make the All Star game the Winter Classic. I'm not sure if that would hurt the popularity of the Winter Classic or help the popularity of the All Star game, but its an idea.

2007 when they stomped us in a Sunday night game that was kind of the first signal that the Bears would not be going back to the Super Bowl. The game was so bad that Grossman was benched as the starter in favor of Griese after the game. Strangely enough the Bears and Cowboys have only met 3 times since 1998, with the 2007 game being the only one in Chicago. Strange because we've played teams like the Eagles like 7-8 times over the same span

I didn't see anyone post the Bears schedule of opponents for next year HOME Green Bay Detroit Minnesota Indianapolis Houston St. Louis Seattle Carolina AWAY Green Bay Detroit Minnesota Jacksonville Tennessee San Francisco Arizona Dallas Probably the 2 of the 3 worst divisions in football this year (AFC South, NFC West along with AFC West), although I'd prefer the home and road games for the NFC West Switched (SF and Arizona at home instead of on road) Overall looks like a fairly easy schedule, but obviously every year things change dramatically.

Great bowl season for the Big Ten.... Purdue - W Iowa - L Northwestern - L Illinois - W Penn State - L Nebraska - Losing by 2 scores Ohio State - Losing by 2 scores Michigan State - Losing, could come back Wisconsin - ? Michigan - ?

That Pollack Guide thing is really awesome. Thanks for posting. Cant believe all this info is readily available for free.

CJ Watson?

What's his name on ESPN (not Mortenson, the younger guy named Adam S...) metioned it this morning. It makes a ton of sense. Sheffter?

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What in the hell? How could the Wizards possibly let that happen?

Prediction time. Saints 38 Lions 35 Falcons 24 Giants 18 Bengals 17 Texans 13 (ah what the hell) Steelers 28 Broncos 10 Saints 30 49ers 22 Packers 41 Falcons 21 Patriots 35 Bengals 21 Steelers 20 Ravens 17 Saints 37 Packers 31 (OT) (did u think I'd let packers get to sb?) Steelers 36 Patriots 33 Saints 27 Steelers 21 So yeah hope everyone's ready for a Packers Ravens SB basically

I'm rooting for the Bengals. When was the last year they won a playoff game again? I know yet lost in 05 and 09 and hadnt made in for a long time before that.

he had a 107.7 rating in the first game (and a broken finger throwing in a stiff wind the second game) I specifically knew you were going to point that out. My observation was that he was glaringly inaccurate on several passes in that game. Looking at the stats, he was 19-26, so my eyes might have deceived me, but I know for a fact he missed wide open receivers a couple of times keeping the Bears in the game. It left me with the impression that he wasn't as good as his numbers showed. Then the second game, finger or not, he was really off. Obviously my observations, which I also heard occasionally from certain "analysts" at the time, were off as he's a very good QB.

LOLZ ROSE SHOT 40% TONIGHT. BULLS WIN DESPITE EX-MVP'S EXCESSIVE CHUCKING. Sorry, just wanted to get that one out of the way so I can enjoy the win (despite the CJ injury that looks serious)

Yeah it will probably come down to the Brewers and Reds. Signing Aramis, depending on how he starts the season, might be the move that keeps the Brewers in the race until Braun comes back. Don't count out the deadbirds though. With Wainwright coming back, while it won't make up for losing Pujols, it could put them in the 85 win range.

groin injury...day to day. i am assuming you are asking why he's out. I have no idea why Rip is wearing a horrible suit.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but since Detroit and Atlanta both finished 10-6, the Bears could have went 10-6 and still missed the playoffs due to losing the 3-way tiebreaker. So in reality we came up three wins short. No doubt in my mind that Cutler's injury was almost 100% to blame for missing the playoffs. We don't go worse than 4-2 with him playing. The Bears in this hypothetical scenario would have lost to Seattle, making the Lions and Bears tie on common opponents record (each going 9-5). They both went 3-3 in the division, so it would come down to conference record. Not sure how that turned out. Edit: The win today gave the Bears a 7-5 conference record and the Lions 6-6. So it looks like, had we beat Denver and KC like we easily could/should have, we'd be in the playoffs as the 5 seed along with Atlanta.

Remember when you used to update Tebow's record after every game? Remember when you thought Tebow was good? Oops. i don't remember bears fans saying stafford wasn't good. He looked bad in the 2 games against the Bears. He was really inaccurate and looked to be regressing after a great start. I don't think anyone labeled him as bad, just that he was playing bad and may not have been as good as people were making him out to be based on his start. Clearly he's pretty good. PS Lions/Saints is going to be entertaining as hell. Probably a bad matchup for NO because Detroit can obviously hang with them in a shootout type game. Detroit's defense is probably better than NO's (right), but playing in the Superdome makes it tough for Detroit.

Final AFC West standings: x-Denver 8-8 Oakland 8-8 San Diego 8-8 Kansas City 7-9 Pretty close to the most mediocre division ever. SD apparently is eliminated on the "Common opponents" tiebreaker. They are almost certainly the best team in the division.

Hilarious...they literally went 0-7 against playoff teams and 9-0 against non-playoff teams Wins: Cleveland Buffalo Jacksonville Indianapolis Seattle Tennessee Cleveland St. Louis Arizona Combined record: 47-97 (average record 5-11) Losses: Denver San Francisco Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Baltimore Baltimore Houston Combined record: 79-42 (average record 10-6)

I'm guessing the schedule will look something like this: Saturday: Bengals @ Texans 3PM Lions @ Saints 7PM Sunday: Falcons @ Giants/Cowboys Noon Steelers @ Broncos 3PM

Yup, when the Broncos lost they clinched. Cincinnati vs. Houston is locked in.

And the Bengals are in the playoffs at 9-7 and 0-4 against the Steelers and Ravens. Funny thing is, they probably have an ok shot at winning against the Texans. Bengals vs. Texans in the wild card round...who predicted that before the season started?

BTW, Trey Burke is awesome. And he's only a freshman. If UM can convince Hardaway to comeback for his junior year, Burke, Hardaway and McGary would make a pretty nice nucleus to challenge for the Big Ten title.

i think he solidified the idea that the difference between jay cutler and aaron rodgers might not be so great as thought. You might have been the only person to see Matt Flynn throw for almost 500 yards and think that this makes a Bears player look good. no, flynn did this last year, too. to me it tells me that you can plug anyone into that offense with those weapons and succeed. No I understand your logic and it makes sense. Just wasn't using that performance to think about how this makes Cutler look. I was too busy trying to blame it on magical pixie dust.