Pendergast Fired as Defensive Coordinator of Arizona Cardinals
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Clancy Pendergast was fired as defensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals, less than a week after the National Football League team lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl.
The Cardinals ranked 28th out of the NFL's 32 teams, and entered the Super Bowl with a defensive unit that had surrendered more points than any squad in the championship's 43- year history.
"As part of the evaluation process that's done after every season, I took a look at the last two years as a whole and felt this move was necessary to help us continue the progress we've made," Coach Ken Whisenhunt said in a statement. "Like every decision it comes down to what's best for the team and what gives us the best chance to win."
The Steelers claimed their record sixth Super Bowl title with a last-minute touchdown and a 27-23 win over the Cardinals on Feb. 1.
In addition to Pendergast's vacancy, the Cardinals also have an opening for offensive coordinator to replace Todd Haley, who accepted the position as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
(c)2009 BLOOMBERG L.P.
The Most Exciting Super Bowl (Squares) Game Ever?
As most everyone knows, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII by a score of 27-23. For football fans, the game was close, entertaining and exciting, and was on par with last year's game.
For those who participate in a few extra activities while watching the game, this Super Bowl had it all. For the majority of America who plays Super Bowl Squares (or Boxes), or makes prop bets during the big game, last night game provided so many different twists and turns that replay challenges were watched like never before.
The first quarter provided only one score. On Pittsburgh's first drive of the game, the Steelers faced 3rd-and-Goal from the 1-yard line. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger (yeah I used his last name, I'm not Madden or Michaels) scrambled in for an apparent touchdown, which would presumably give the Pitt a 7-0 lead.
Arizona coach Ken Wisenhunt challenged, Big Ben was down, out came the FG unit and the score was only 3-0. Unless one was lucky enough to have both of those combinations in their pool, a lot of people lost some money on that challenge.
That call also could have affected the over/under bet on the jersey number of player who scored the first touchdown in the game, which was set at 38.5. It nearly did, as on the first play of the second quarter, Roethlisberger threw to Heath Miller (No. 83), who was stopped at the one-yard line. Short-yardage back Gary Russell (No. 33) punched it in, and all the bettors on the under sighed in relief.
Later in the second quarter, Arizona had scored to make it 10-7, and were driving in the Pittsburgh red zone with 18 seconds and no timeouts. People with the (0,0) and (0,4) squares were fighting it out for which type of score the Cardinals would get, and those with (0,7) were praying for the Steelers to somehow stop the Cards.
Of course, after showing the stat for how great Cardinals QB Kurt Warner had been in the red zone all playoffs, Warner was picked off by Defensive POY James Harrison (did they mention he was undrafted and cut four different times?) who then had the longest play in Super Bowl history with a 100-yard return for an apparent touchdown.
The owners of the (7,7) square could not believe their luck. And then the replay booth needed to determine whether or not Harrison got the ball across the goal line. I know it's always possible, but I can't remember when four different squares all had a legitimate chance to win on the last play of a quarter.
While I don't know every prop bet available, I'm pretty sure that Harrison's interception affected many of them, most notably the first half over-under and who would score the first defensive TD.
Then came quarter number three. This one did not provide much scoring or excitement until the 3:30 mark, when the Steelers drove into the red zone. Those of us with the (0,7) box who were hoping for a Pittsburgh stop in the second quarter needed another one on third down to set up a FG attempt which would make the score 20-7.
Sure enough, the NFL's 28th ranked defense was able to force an incompletion, and Pittsburgh K Jeff Reed knocked the field goal through. But, of course, there was a flag. The rarely seen knocking over the holder penalty on Cardinals S Adrian Wilson gave the Steelers first-and-goal from the five-yard line.
A natural assumption was to assume the Steelers would capitalize on this and the (4,7) crowd would finally get involved. But the Cardinals defense held strong, and another Reed FG, this one counted, went through and (0,7) square holders rejoiced. Oh, and the Cardinals kept the game within two scores, which I guess was important for the outcome.
After being forced to punt with 13 minutes left to play, Pittsburgh took over on their own 43-yard line and it seemed that the only bet in doubt was what Pittsburgh's final score would be. Surely they would win outright, cover the spread and hold Arizona scoreless for the rest of the game.
As we all know, the opposite happened. A Larry Fitzgerald one-yard touchdown made it 20-14, and later, after an Arizona punt put Pittsburgh on their own one-yard line, a holding penalty in the end zone made it 20-16. The (0,6) square comes out of nowhere to make an appearance, and puts a wrinkle into the final score.
We all know that the actual game got exciting from there, as each team scored a touchdown to make the final score 27-23 Pittsburgh.
As great as last year's game was, with the undefeated team and the upset and all, it only produced five different scoring plays. This year's Super Bowl had all the excitement, nine scoring plays, three near or called back scoring plays and Bruce Springsteen (you could bet on which songs he played). For the football fan who had no rooting interest in this game, I don't think it gets much more exciting.
Copyright (c) 2009 Bleacher Report, Inc
No viewing parties at Westgate, University of Phoenix Stadium
At the request of the NFL, Westgate City Center and University of Phoenix Stadium will not hold Super Bowl viewing parties.
The National Football League, exercising clout that no other professional league carries, prohibits large scale venues from broadcasting games.
"We will not be sponsoring a city viewing party for the Super Bowl," said Glendale spokeswoman Jennifer Liewer.
"We would love to throw a gigantic party and air the game, but per NFL rules, we aren't allowed to air it on our giant LED," said Nicole Traynor, spokeswoman for The Ellman Cos., the master developer of Westgate. "We don't want to take the risk."
NFL officials cited copyright laws that prohibit such mass viewings, particularly those as valuable as the Super Bowl, which is watched by millions of fans across the world.
"It's a long-standing NFL policy," said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.
That policy protects the NFL and media partners that buy game rights and sell airtime.
This year, NBC Universal, a subsidiary of General Electric Co., is charging $3 million for a 30-second spot.
Last year's Super Bowl, which saw the heavy underdog New York Giants upset the New England Patriots in the final minutes, drew 97.5 million viewers. That was the second largest audience in television history, trailing only the 1983 finale of "MASH," according to Nielson Media Research.
The NFL upholds stricter enforcement and guidelines regarding mass viewings than other professional leagues. Cities represented in Major League Baseball playoffs frequently hold viewing parties at their stadiums and arenas, and other large-scale venues. Numerous bars throughout the Phoenix area are planning Super Bowl parties for Sunday's game in Tampa.
(c)2009 American City Business Journals, Inc
Super Bowl teams have little in common
Super Bowl XLIII: A tradition unlike any other meets no tradition whatsoever.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be gunning for an unprecedented sixth Super Bowl title.
The Arizona Cardinals - nee Phoenix Cardinals, nee St. Louis Cardinals, nee Chicago Cardinals - will be trying to win the franchise's first championship since 1947. When the Chicago Cubs are the only sports franchise with a longer title drought, you know you've been wandering in the wilderness for a very, very long time.
With their crunching 23-14 victory over the Ravens in the AFC title game, the Steelers returned to the Super Bowl for the second time in four years and seventh time in team history. With an incredibly talented, young nucleus more trips in the near-future seem likely.
The Cardinals' 32-25 victory over the Eagles, meanwhile, pre-empted a Battle of Pennsylvania Super Bowl and cemented their reputations as the most audacious party crashers in the league.
To appreciate the scope of Steelers history you need to know the history of the league in the Super Bowl era. To appreciate the scope of Cardinals history you merely need a game log that goes back three weeks.
-Steelers football is a sea of Terrible Towels.
-Cardinals football has been a sea of terrible teams.
-Steelers football is the Rooney Family. Your elegiac sentiment here.
-Cardinals football is the Bidwell Family. Your snarky joke here.
-Steelers football is the Steel Curtain.
-Cardinals football is paper mache.
-Steelers football is Bradshaw and Franco and Stallworth and Swann and Lambert and Ham and Mean Joe and L.C. and Noll and Cowher.
-Cardinals football is Larry Fitzgerald. (Fitzgerald has already broken Jerry Rice's record for receiving yards in a postseason with 419 and counting.)
-Steelers football is all about winning.
-Cardinals football was, until this season, all about losing. And losing. And losing.
This year's Super Bowl will match a team from a city whose fans travel all over the country to support their beloved Black and Gold against a team that has relocated across the country looking for fans that might actually care about it.
One could argue, I suppose, that the Cardinals also have a tradition unlike any other. With zero championships in 61 years and one playoff victory in two joyless decades in the Valley of the Sun it's certainly not a tradition anyone would want to emulate.
An optimist, and there can't be many of those in tiny Cardinals Nation, might like to believe that the team is building a winning tradition under Ken Whisenhunt. But can you really start building a tradition with a 37-year-old quarterback?
On the other side, the winning tradition looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. At 36, Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin is one year younger than Kurt Warner and the youngest coach to lead his team to the Super Bowl.
His quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, 26, became the youngest QB to win the Lombardi Trophy when he did it at 23 in SB XL.
And while it is mind-boggling to think about Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, Mel Blount and Donnie Shell playing on the same defense, this year's top-ranked defense doesn't have to take a backseat to anybody.
Despite lining up in a 3-4, this Pittsburgh D seems fully wired with the original Curtain's DNA. Outside linebackers James Harrison (the NFL Defensive Player of the Year) and Lamar Woodley (two sacks in each of the playoff wins) have been unblockable beasts. Nose tackle Casey Hampton might be even more immovable than Mean Joe and Ernie "Fats" Holmes.
And then there's Troy Polamalu, whose pick-six sealed Sunday's victory. He hits like Donnie Shell and ballhawks like Mike Wagner (and Rod Woodson).
Polamalu was featured in the sports commercial of the year this season, a Nike spot set to Ennio Morricone's The Ecstasy of the Gold from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. His spectacular knockout punch on Sunday would seem to merit a new spot with a remix, The Ecstasy of the Black and Gold.
On offense, Roethlisberger seems right out of the Terry Bradshaw mold: big, tough, gutsy and, above all, a winner. Like Lynn Swann before him, Hines Ward already has one Super Bowl MVP under his belt, though a knee injury may keep him from trying to make it two.
And Santonio Holmes has looked an awful lot like home run threat John Stallworth, delivering electrifying TDs in each of the past two weeks.
It's not that Fitzgerald, Warner, Anquan Boldin and Edgerrin James aren't also following in some impressive footprints. It's just harder to follow them when they were left in another city.
When the Steelers were winning all those championships in the '70s the St. Louis Cardinals had some studs of their own. Dan Dierdorf was a Hall of Fame tackle. Roger Wehrli was a Hall of Fame cornerback. Jim Otis won the NFC rushing crown in 1975. Terry Metcalf set a league record for total yards. Quarterback Jim Hart and wide receiver Mel Gray formed a lethal combination in what would become known as the vertical passing game.
But for all their talent the Cardinals played NFC bridesmaids to the Cowboys and Vikings in the '70s.
Then came the '80s, the fade into obscurity and the move to Phoenix, where obscurity would become oblivion.
But after a 9-7 regular season in which they went 6-0 against the Division I-AA NFC West and 3-7 against the rest of the league, the Cardinals now have a chance to spit in the eye of one of the league's giants.
Barring another superhuman effort from Fitzgerald, which is entirely possible, it's hard to imagine the Cardinals preventing the Steelers from experiencing the Joy of Six.
(c)2009 Fox Sports Interactive Media, LLC
'Mystery candidate' up for Rams coaching job
NFL sources told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that there's an unknown candidate up for the St. Louis Rams head coaching vacancy whose name has not been mentioned yet in media reports.
Mike Florio, a Sporting News contributor and editor of ProFootballTalk.com, speculates the "mystery candidate" is a college football coach who doesn't want his recruiting class to be impacted by the news, and one such plausible candidate is Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh. He reportedly interviewed for the Jets' opening last week.
Rams general manager Billy Devaney has been actively pursuing coaching candidates, including Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, who interviewed Sunday morning in Baltimore.
(c)2008 SportingNews.com
New Orleans Saints Roundup
The 8-8 Saints were 0-5 in games decided by a field goal or less. Four NFL teams pulled out tight games to gain playoff berths. Carolina and Atlanta were each 3-0 in games decided by three points or less, Indianapolis was 3-1 and Minnesota 4-1.
Saints coach Sean Payton said in his post-season news conference, "We had three our four games where it got close, and we couldn't hold on the lead. Everybody on this team works so hard for the postseason, toward an opportunity to get in the playoffs. It's hard when you don't meet those expectations. That's the easiest way to say it wasn't good enough.
"We talked about in our final meeting, where each one of us has to do a better job of putting ourselves in a position to win.. So a year from now we're not packing up. We're preparing to play in the playoffs."
Six of the Saints' losses came by a total of 18 points. Games that got away early in the season eventually meant the difference in being and perhaps 12-4.
The reasons for the closes were equally distributed among he offense, defense and special teams. Missed field goals, the inability to convert on third down and keep drives alive as well as turnovers, and long pass plays against the defense all played a part in the Saints missing the playoffs for the second straight season.
"You have to understand that most NFL games, or least half of them, come down to the last two minutes of the game so you want to put yourself in the best position to win the game," said Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
"When that time comes around, it's just about guys stepping up and making plays. No game is ever going to be perfect, but when it gets inside two minutes, guys have to make the plays."
Brees received zero votes for the NFL's MVP award. Of the 50 sportswriters who have a voice in the process, not one voted for Brees.
Brees maybe didn't deserve the award, primarily because he didn't take the Saints to the playoffs, but he at least deserved some recognition.
Peyton Manning won the award for the third time, tying Brent Favre's three MVPs.
Manning overcame two knee surgeries that sidelined him the the preseason to lead the Colts to a nine-game winning streak and a 12-win season. He guided his team to six comeback victories in the fourth quarter.
How much damage did Favre do to his reputation by coming out of retirement to quarterback the Jets? Listen to Jets running back Thomas Jones. during an interview with New York radio station WQHT-FM.
"We're a team and we win together...but at the same time, you can't turn the ball over and expect to win.," said Jones. The three interceptions (in the season-ending loss to the Dolphins) really hurt us....If I were to sit here and say, 'Oh, man it's OK,' that's not reality. The reality is, you throw interceptions, I'm ticked off. I don't like it."
That's what happens when you win one of five games in December.
(c)2006-2007 BAYOUBUZZ.COM
Lions not expected to flirt with Pioli, Parcells; head-coaching search will start soon
The Lions desperately need to give something to the fans to be excited about following the NFL's first 0-16 season, but a rock-star general manager doesn't appear to be on the holiday shopping list. By promoting Tom Lewand to CEO and Martin Mayhew to general manager, owner William Clay Ford has sent a clear message that he likes the basic structure of the front office and would rather focus his efforts on improving the coaching for the next staff to replace Rod Marinelli's outgoing group. Following Sunday's 31-21 loss to the Packers, the Lions now have lost 23 of their past 24 games with only a win over the Chiefs late in the 2007 season in that stretch.
The PFW spin
First things first. The Lions are not going after Patriots VP of player personnel Scott Pioli or Dolphins executive vice president of football operations Bill Parcells, who reportedly is at odds with owner Stephen Ross and who could opt out of his contract within the month. They have settled on two-thirds of the front-office cogs but likely will want to hire an experienced personnel guy to head up the staff.
As for how picking Marinelli's replacement goes, the team will move quickly this week to contact candidates from around the league, starting with teams who are on playoff byes or are out of the postseason and can be interviewed immediately. That list is likely to include such names as Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger. The Lions also are believed to have requested permission to speak with Redskins secondary coach Jerry Gray, who has connections to Mayhew, for an unknown role with the team.
Although the team is moving quickly to start the interview process, they are believed to be committed to a thorough process that could take weeks. Team insiders have suggested for weeks that the Lions know they might be at a disadvantage when choosing a coach, considering the team's current state and the condition of the Detroit auto market affecting the team's and the Ford family's well being.
(c)2002-2008 by Pro Football Weekly LLC
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