The NFL has officially changed its overtime rules… But only for the playoffs. The world is coming to a change, with health care reform and overtime reform in the same week. However, unlike health care reform, this new change should have few opponents for the following reasons.

1.)  The old rule was straight up unfair. Whichever team won the coin toss in overtime had the clear advantage of winning. All the team had to do was get inside field goal range. “Evens or Odds” or a game of “One. Two. Three. Horsengoggle!” made as much sense as the old rule.

2.)  The Packers and other teams will not have to frantically pray for a “Heads” or a “Tails”. One example I can think of is a Detroit Lions game a few years ago. In overtime, the Lions won the toss and for whatever reason not know to man, they decided to kick! The Lions of course being the losers that they are, lost the game.

Why does this rule only take effect in the playoffs you ask? Well the official explanation for that was player safety. The NFL fears that if they were to extend the game by one drive, players might get hurt. Kind of stupid I think, but better safe than sorry.

It looks like cornerback/return man Will Blackmon will receive the offer of the low tender in free agency.

This means that the Packer’s have the right to turn down Blackmon if he wishes to sign with another team and the Packers would then be compensated with a 4th round pick. The Packers low tender towards Blackmon consists of $1.76 Million.

However, with Blackmon’s long list of injuries any Packer fan could question on whether Blackmon should stay or go. Overall, I think there are more reasons to keep him around.

Reasons Blackmon should go:

1. The 4th year veteran is made out of glass. In all but one of his seasons he has been injured for seven games or more.

2. As I said before, the Pack get a fourth rounder if he signs with another team. That fourth rounder could be more valuable than the injury prone returner.

Reasons Blackmon should stay:

1. When Will Blackmon has played as a returner, he has been quite  successful. He currently has the franchise record tied with Desmond Howard for most punt return TD’s (3).  While the 08 season was the only one where he wasn’t injured for the majority of games, he had an impressive total of 1,157 yards on kick returns and 398 yards on punt returns.

2. With the uncertain future of Al Harris and with Pat Lee’s unproven  ability, having Will Blackmon fill in at corner couldn’t hurt.

3. If he did sign with another time and became successful, fans would go after Thompson for not resigning him.  One similar player is Allen Rossum, who was not resigned and is still a successful return man to this day.

Although the Pack has given Blackmon many chances, I think one more go around with him is necessary. If he gets injured again this year, it’ll be time for him to go.

George Costanza

Looking at the Brewer’s starting roster, you would think that they have a solid all around team with an array of good hitters and adequate pitching.  But how will this season go? Will the Brewers finish on top of NL Central? Or will they have another George Costanza type season, where their hot start is buried under a pile of gaffs and bad puns?
The pile of gaffs and bad puns is of course a metaphor to the Brewers’ history over the last few years.  At first you would love players like Corey Hart or the ex-Brewer JJ Hardy, but once the second half of the season came around they would show their true colors and Brewer fans would quickly turn on them. Obviously, it didn’t only come down to Corey Hart and the thankfully ousted JJ Hardy. Pitching went sour with the plethora of mediocre pitchers such as Jeff Suppan and Braden Looper along with inconsistent pitchers, like Carlos Villaneuva and Manny Parra. It is too bad we can’t have guy like CC Sabathia every year. Good players come and go. That’s something the Brewers have gotten used to from being one of the smallest markets in the Major League.
However,  Brew Crew fans should be more confident about this year. Not only has the Crew picked up a few accomplished veterans like Pitcher Latroy Hawkins and Catcher Gregg Zaun, (who is sure to be more valuable than Kendall) but Milwaukee may see their young prospects really develop this year.
Alcides Escobar is the guy that every Brewer fan thinks about when they hear the words “promising prospect”. Although Escobar does not have a lot of power behind his swing, he could end up being top of the lineup batter and could use his speed to be a valuable base runner. Did I mention he happened to be arguably the best defensive short stop in the minors? Brewers’ Farm Director Reid Nichols has said “He’ll make at least one ‘WOW’ play a game, count on it.”
Casey Magee and Rickie Weeks are unproven, but seem to be heading in the right direction. Although Rickie’s season came to a quick end, both of these batters contain a powerful swing and look to be major threats in the lineup.
As far as backups go, much of the infield looks pretty stacked. Matt Gamel, who also still has not proven himself, seems to be a capable backup along with Joe Inglett and the fan favorite Craig Counsell. I don’t know much about Joe Inglett, but a .293 batting average in 211 games doesn’t sound too shabby. Looking at Craig-O, the people of Milwaukee would love to see him play like he did last season. In fact, I may just buy a Counsell jersey if he does so. I’ve forgiven the man for being a bit of a cheap tipper while I mowed his lawn.

The Bears signing of Mike Martz shows one thing. That they are desperate to improve their team. Who wouldn’t want to? The Bears traded away two of their first round picks for a quarterback that was a total disappointment.  Jay Cutler threw the most interceptions out of any QB (26) and finished with an un-impressive quarterback rating of 76.8.  Who knows? Maybe Cutler had a bad year due to the lack of talent that surrounds him (other than Greg Olson and Johnny Knox). Or maybe Cutler was glorified by his time in Denver.  Maybe Cutler really isn’t that good. Spending 2 first round picks was a very high investment that did not pay dividends. To exacerbate the Bears position even more, they traded away their highest pick in the upcoming draft for Gaines Adams, who died shortly after. RIP.
Thirdly, Matt Forte, who had a solid rookie season, pretty much did the opposite in this 2009 season with only four total touchdowns. It looks to be that Forte had a fluke of a rookie year.
With all of this in mind, it seems that the Bears only chance at success will either be shown in beneficial free agent pick ups or changes in personnel.  So far Chicago has taken the latter approach. The Bears just signed one of the extremely aggressive Mike Martz, who may in fact make the team better for quite a few reasons.
1. Lovie and Martz have a great relationship. The two were very successful in St. Louis together and Martz’s offense was once named “The greatest show on turf.”
2.  The rest of the receivers are almost sure to put up bigger numbers.  While Devin Hester, Earl Bennett, and Johnny Knox are nothing like Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, and As-Zahir Hakim, I would say that those receivers should be able to be larger threats than they were under Ron Turner.

3. Martz could utillize Greg Olson and make him a big difference maker.

While all these are reasons the Bears could improve, it is my theory that Bears will still suck.  A team can have the best personnel in the world, but if there’s no talent to back it up, then there will be no chance at victory.  I believe a safe prediction can be that the Vikings will once again be the only threat to the Packers in the NFC North…. Unless the Bears sign ‘out of this world’ free agents.