NFC West is a Mess

          I am not sure if any of you have been paying attention to the NFC West division, but it is absolutely awful. In fact, it is so awful that the team that is in first place is the St. Louis Rams with a record of 5-6. They are currently tied with the Seattle Seahawks. The 49ers are just 1 game back with a record of 4-7, and the Arizona cardinals are only two games back at 3-8. Yes that is right, currently a team leading a division has a less than 500 record. At this point, Arizona has all been knocked out of getting to the playoffs. But the even crazier part is that St. Louis, San Francisco, and Seattle all play each other one more time left in the regular season. This of course means that potentially the winner of this division may end up being 7-9! Yes, that is right a sub 500 team maybe a division winner. Now of course the chances of one of these teams, only winning the divisional games, and losing the rest is unlikely, kind of. After all we are talking about the NFC West. In this division I am going to take the St. Louis Rams to win the NFC West. Their record is likely going to be 8-8 or 7-9 to win the division., which is embarrassing but, its been a huge turn around from last season for the rams. But they are led by Sam Bradford as their qb this, and Spagnoulo is back as their coach. They are showing much more promise then they did last year, and because of this I think that they make it to the playoff after going 1-15 last year. But who knows, in this division maybe even the Cardinals will win it.

Johnson v. Finnegan

          I am sure by now most of you have heard of the Andre Johnson and Cortland Finnegan fight yesterday. This is no surprise that Cortland Finnegan got into a fight. This is because if I think of a fight in the NFL the first team that is going to come to mind, I think of the Tennessee Titans. And if I think of the one player on the team that was probably involved in this fight is Cortland Finnegan. Finnegan is one of the dirtiest players in the NFL. This is a well known, well documented fact. He is an instegator to the max. Look at this situation, he got one of the calmest, quietest, chill wide-recievers in the NFL to completely go off. It is not like Finnegan had T.O or Chad Ochocinco go off on him and start raining haymakers he got Andre Johnson to go off on him. And hoenstly I am glad that he did, it was about time that someone stood up to Finnegan instead of letting him taunt, and push these recievers off. And I am sure that Finnegan never thought Johnson would go off like that on him. And Johnson pretty much showed Finnegan off, and beat him in that fight, easily. Which should be no surprise Finnegan is just 5' 10"  188 lbs and Andre Johnson is 6' 3" and 225 lbs of pure muscle. So it will become interesting the next time Houston plays Tennessee, and if Johnson and Finnegan will get into it again. Of course knowing how Finnegan is, it is likely he will challenge Johnson to another duel. And for the record, my money is on Johnson to knock Finnegan around easily, again.

Jeter Still Needs a Deal

          The Yankees have still yet to hammer out a deal with their all-star shortstop Derek Jeter, and this could be a major problem for them. If the Yankees ultimately let Jeter walk, not only are they losing one of the best short stops in the game but they are losing a face of their franchise. The face that has been then for the last 16 years. And its been recently reported  by ESPN that they are not going to offer him arbitration (where he could sign a one year deal, but he nor the Yankees negotiate the terms of  the contract). Now Derek Jeter is looking like he may be walking away from the Yankees. And who honestly can blame him? I know I certainly can not. From my view its that the Yankees are treating him unfair. This player has been the face of the franchise for the last 16 years, and the Yankees can only see that he is getting old, and did not have the best season last year, and therefore they do not want to pay him. Unfortunately the Yankees NEED to sign him. Also to judge Jeter on one down season is an awful idea, and to say hes getting old, hes not going to be good we should not pay him big money to stay is ludicrous. And just because he is old does not mean he is not going to have a break out, MVP season. Look at Brett Favre last season. Everyone thought he was too old, he should just leave the game, but he defied everyone came back and played one of the best seasons in his career. Needless to say the Yankees need to buck up, and give Jeter the money. He has played 16 years for your franchise! The least they can do for this man is sign him to a 4 or 5 year deal worth a ton of money, hes worked hard reward him.

Big East Expansion

          The Big East conference is looking to expand its football conference from eight teams to ten teams. Teams that they are looking at adding to the Big East conference are, Villanova, TCU, University of Central Florida (UCF), Houston, and Temple (there are other teams but they appear to be less significance). As of right know it seems there is almost one definite out of that group and that is Villanova. This is because Villanova already plays in the Big East for Basketball and most of their other sports.
          My personal opinion of this whole situation is that the Big East should seriously consider extending the invitation out to TCU, and Villanova. TCU is a dominate team. It would bring national attention to the Big East on a weekly basis. TCU would be a solid competitor every week that they went out to play. And if I was TCU I would be jumping all over the opportunity. This is because the Big East gets an automatic bid to a BCS game. This could be their opportunity to no longer miss out on going to the National Championship because they do no have the strength of schedule. In fact that debate for TCU would be basically knocked away. They would be playing tough schools in the Big East, rather than the weaker opponents of the Mountain West. By bringing TCU into the Big East it will also boost the other schools talent, because of the national attention that would be brought to the conference by TCU. And with recent news of the Mountain West adding Hawaii today to the conference it seems that TCU is looking to leave the Mountain West. If TCU were to stay in this conference there would be 11 teams. TCU would then have to play Boise State every year. This is an opponent I feel TCU may want to stay away from. And by switching to the Big East conference they would stay away from Boise State, unless they decided they wanted to play them.
          Either way, I think it would be the smart move to bring TCU into the Big East. As a fan of the Big East Conference I think that it would be the best move for them. I would be excited to watch the games against TCU. It is also going to give the Big East more national attention, which means more money, which all athletic conferences are about. So I hope to hear in the next few days or weeks that TCU is joining the Big East, and I can not wait to watch them play against some great Big East opponents.

Philly Eagles Get a Little Greener

          Yes that is right, Philly is going to be a little greener come next football season. The Philadelphia Eagles announced recently that they are investing in green energy. Philadelphia plans to install 2,500 solar panels and 80 cylindrical wind turbines. They are also looking to have a co-generator that will run on both natural gas and bio-diesel. If or rather when Philadelphia places this co-generator they will be the first team in the NFL that will supply their own power, and even more impressively their own power coming from greener sources such as natural gas and bio-diesel. A quarter of the energy needed will be produced by the solar panels and the wind mills. The rest will come from the generator. The upgrades are expected to be completed by the start of the 2011 season.
          As an NFL fan this is what I love to hear. I am definitely all about going green. The amount of energy that these stadiums are using is an incredibly high amount. If all stadiums were to start doing this it could really take a chunk out of the country's demand for foreign oil, which is always a good thing. Furthermore with the lights going dark on the New Meadowlands Stadium last week because of problems with their feeder source, its going to allow the Eagles to worry just a little bit less about power and losing it. I hope more teams, and more importantly my New York Giants jump on board and begin to make their stadiums a little more eco-friendly.

Does Mike Vick Deserve a Second Shot?

With the most recent success of Michael Vick the question arises is it time to forgive what he has done? For many people forgiving Vick for his actions might not never come. But for me, I have completely forgave him for what he did. Now I will never forget the actions that he did. And I am sure Vick will never forget what he did either (which may make him play hard his entire career). I totally understand people still being offended for what he did. I mean he harmed a lot of dogs in his dog fighting ring. But this happened in the past. Mike Vick has gone to jail for two years and payed his time. I think many people are forgetting something in this as well, Donte Stallworth hit and killed a person and went to jail for 6 months. He also had no suspension or anything. I understand that he did not do this on purpose. But he was intoxicated when he hit the person. This issue was hardly covered. Now Vick knowingly killed and harmed these dogs, but he went to jail for two years. Following that he was suspended for a few weeks from playing football. Vick has done his time, and from what I can see on the field he has learned his lesson. He shows that he actually wants to play. He goes out every game with heart. In fact hes playing maybe the best football in the NFL this year. He has not thrown one interception all year to this point. And last night went 20 for 28 333 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran the ball eight times for 80 yards and two touchdowns. And for the season he has thrown for 1,350 yards and 11 touchdowns, and maybe the most impressive fact is that he has not thrown any interceptions. To me I see a completely rejuvinated man. To me he is showing that he is happy that he got a second chance, that he knows he did wrong, and this is his apology to the world for doing such a terrible thing.

The Unofficial Start to College Basketball

There is nothing I love more then waking up to some NCAA College Basketball. The only problem I have with ESPN's 24 hour college basketball marathon is that most of the games are between no name teams. Now on one hand I think this is absolutely great. Giving these smaller school teams some national attention that they deserve. But unfortunatly I find a majority of these games very boring. And its not that I do not want to pay attention to these games, its just that I know very little of these teams, which makes it hard to get into the game. Maybe ESPN should consider focusing more on these College Basketball teams more through out the year rather than all of the big name basketball teams. Perhaps they should even consider a new ESPN. They could call it, ESPN-CB. The college basketball world is so large, and I feel that they play some of the best, hard fought games in basketball. Viewership for this channel could be astronomical. Especially if they were to put it in HD. It would give these smaller schools the attention they deserve. I mean yes, you are always going to leave some teams out. But some of these Mid-major teams could get attention that they went. In this idea, ESPN would still broadcast the big rivals and top 25 team games on ESPN and ESPN 2. The mid major games would then be broadcasted on ESPN-CB. And if ESPN ever needs someone to broadcast any of their basketball games for their new channel, they can gladly get a hold of me!

The First Post

This is the Heet Zone. A blog that is written by J.R. Heeter. For the most part my new blogs will be a once or twice a day, or when ever something is inspiring me to write in the sports world. But first its key for me to inform you of who I am, as well as why I would even want to start writing these, so here it goes. I am currently a Junior at Hunter College in the big city of Manhattan. As of right now, I have not declared a major, but as soon as this semester ends I will be a media studies major. I intend to later go into Sports Broadcasting, or something along that line. I am basically interested in every sport. I watch sports on television constantly, which annoys my girlfriend and my other female roommate. But over the years of watching sports I believe I have become highly knowledgable on the subject. And now I think its my turn to share my opinions, thoughs, ideas with the rest of the world. So here is where I will start talking about sports and no longer about myself.

Lets start with some NCAA Division 1 football. There has defintly been some good games over the weekend, and I hope many of you got the chance to watch some of the games. My first question is, what happend to TCU this weekend? They looked pitiful out there against San Diego State. I mean I understand San Diego State is only a two loss team. Yes they are a very solid team. But for a team that is looking for a National Title bid like TCU is they should have at least put some seperation on this team. I think, with Boise States dominate win that Boise State deserves to be much higher praised than TCU. Boise State should be number 3 later today when the polls are released. TCU should fall to 4. Auburn and Oregon will stay the same.
Now also in the NCAA Football, has anyone seen the Big East Confrence? Its one giant mess. I think that Pittsburgh will ultimatly win the confrence, which means they will be in a BCS bowl, but I think Syracuse should be a team that people should watch. They are bowl eligiable for the first time since 2004! Their quarterback Ryan Nassib is playing some great football right now, and he has a solid tight end in Provo. I think they are a team that people should start to watch. Because the Big East gets an automatic bid to a BCS bowl game.

And now to the NFL. I will talk about the game that I am watching now, The Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings. But most importantly I want to take a close look at Jay Cutler. This kid is good. He has such a strong arm, and so much confidence in his arm its only a matter of team before he becomes unstoppable. He has one major downside to him, and that is his awful decision making. But I think within a year or two, under the coaching of Lovie Smith that he will become a quarterback great. Lets also take a look at Brett Favre. He is suddenly playing like the Brett Favre we saw last year. He had a career game last week, what kind of water is this man drinking? Now this week he told NFL network that he would not be returning to play again next year. And for the first time. I do believe him. Favre is so beat up, and now as I can see it incredibly sick of the Minnesota Vikings. And as heartbreaking as it might be, I really feel that this is the end of an era. So enjoy everymoment that you see of Brett Favre play, because there likely will never again be someone that plays with as much heart as that of Brett Favre.