The Marlins are the 2nd worst team in the majors and Jeff Passan has reported all year about Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria meddling with personnel decisions. So not only has Loria robbed South Beach residents to build his monstrosity of a stadium, traded away the best players after barely just signing them, but is now making all the personnel decisions regarding the team. The Miami Herald has the story.
"Sources said Loria is now making most — if not all — of the baseball decisions, which is fueling speculation that president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest and team president David Samson could be ousted after the season.
“He has marginalized the front office,” said a major-league source, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. “The front office isn’t making decisions. Loria makes them all.”
Oh that is so perfect. He's not only robbing South Beach residents, he's morphed into 70's-80's George Steinbrenner and Ted Turner.
Could you imagine working for this team? Could you imagine sending a resume and being interviewed by this team? And forget about Giancarlo Stanton going anywhere. The Marlins aren't trading him as long as Loria is making the baseball decisions. Loria has his pet players, read about how he spoiled Hanley Ramriez during his time in Miami, and you can see that Stanton isn't going anywhere for the near future.
The Marlins are still a mess and they'll always be a mess as long as Jeffrey Loria is still breathing.
Chad Johnson, beater of wives, was cut by the Miami Dolphins. And thankfully the Hard Knocks cameras caught every last second of this uncomfortable exchange between Johnson and Dolphins coach Joe Philbin
My favorite part of this whole ordeal was that idiot Skip Bayless blasting Philbin for giving Johnson a "low blow" by cutting him.
Just watched "Hard Knocks." What a low blow for Philbin to call in an extremely apologetic Chad Johnson at his lowest moment - and cut him.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) August 15, 2012
Hey Skipper it's nice to see you're not sucking Tebow's cock 24/7, but now you're seriously blasting a coach who cut a wife beater? Seriously? You wanna know what a "low blow" is? Hitting a woman. That's a low blow.
I'll admit though to being surprised that out of Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, and Chad Johnson that Johnson was the one cut first. I'm going to predict that both Owens and Moss will also be cut before the end of the season.
Let me first say I have no dog in the Heat-Celtics race*. I just want that series to end because I find it to be a boring series. That being said, I'm now rooting for the Heat on Saturday night. I want the Heat to crush the Celtics and I hope Lebron has an even bigger game than he had on Thursday night. Especially after this.
*Not exactly true. I'm rooting for the Heat in this series because I don't want to see the Celtics in the final because I hate watching them play period. They're the modern version of the late 90's Jazz on offense.
Between the videos of Dane Cook and Maria Menounos and the Celtics fans behavior last night, I hope the Heat destroy the Celtics. I hope Garnett's knee explodes on the court. I hope this is Ray Allen's last game. I want a complete destruction of the Celtics.
Throwing a beer on Lebron didn't stop Celtics fans from being even more jackassery last night.
Yes destroy the Heat on Saturday. Do it for America. The uprising in Boston must be stopped!
(With the Super Bowl coming up on Sunday, I will look at the five Super Bowls that the 49ers played in. Why the 49ers you ask and not other Super Bowls, because this is my blog and I'm a 49ers fan. So deal with it.)
Super Bowl XIX San Francisco 38 Miami 16 Location: Stanford Stadium, Palo Alto, California Date: January 20, 1985 MVP: Joe Montana Favorite: 49ers by 3 1/2 National Anthem: San Francisco Boys and Girls Chorus Coin Toss: President Ronald Reagan Network: ABC Announcers: Frank Gifford, Joe Theisman, and Don Meredith Nielsen Rating: 46.4
Background: Heading into the 1984 season, the Niners were coming off a very controversial loss to the Washington Redskins in the 1983 NFC Championship. So needless to say, the Niners were looking for revenge for that loss. The Niners in 1984 became the first team, since the league expanded to a 16 game schedule, to win 15 games with their only loss coming in the last second against Pittsburgh.
Joe Montana lead the offense with running backs Wendell Tyler and Roger Craig, with receivers Freddie Solomon and Dwight Clark and tight end Russ Francis. The defense didn't get a lot of media attention, but the unit lead the league in fewest points allowed. All four defensive backs Dwight Hicks, Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright, and Carlton Williamson were selected to the Pro Bowl. And the defensive line was anchored by Dwaine Board.
The Miami Dolphins on the other hand were lead by prolific second year quarterback Dan Marino, who broke every meaningful passing record that season. Mark Duper and Mark Clayton were Marino's main targets. While the Dolphins had a prolific offense, the defense was a little suspect.
The 49ers defense dominated the 1984 playoffs by only allowing 10 points in two games, including shutting out the Bears in the NFC Championship. While the offense was dominating in the playoffs, Montana did throw 5 interceptions in two games.
The Dolphins on the other hand were very dominating on offense scoring 76 points with Marino only throwing 1 interception. The Dolphins defense though allowed 38 points to Seattle and Pittsburgh. Pregame Notes: - This would be the second time in history that one of the Super Bowl participants would be the de facto home team. Since San Francisco is only thirty miles away from Palo Alto, the Niners would basically be a home team for this Super Bowl. The first time was when the Los Angles Rams played in the Rose Bowl.
- With Marino and Montana at quarterback, the hype surrounding these two would be at a all-time high complete with a SI cover with both quarterbacks.
- This would be the Super Bowl ever that would be broadcasted by ABC. In previous years, the broadcast would alternate between CBS and NBC.
Game Summary 1st Quarter The 49ers received the opening kickoff but did nothing with the ball and was forced the punt. Miami drove down the field on their first drive but ended up kicking a field goal to take the 3-0 lead. San Francisco drove 78 yards in 8 plays on their next drive, culminating in a 33-yard touchdown pass from Montana to reserve running back Carl Monroe to give them a 7-3 lead. Miami would then drive down the field and score with a Marino to Dan Johnson touchdown pass. Miami would end the 1st quarter with the 10-7 lead.
2nd Quarter The Niners would take control of the game in the 2nd quarter. Defensive Coordinator George Seifert had the defense switch to a dime defense that would stop the run and also slow down the pass and hopefully create some turnovers. The new defense worked and forced Miami to punt from their own 10-yard line early in the quarter. Montana threw a 8-yard touchdown pass to Roger Craig as the Niners would take the 14-10 lead and never look back. The Niners forced another Miami punt and Montana would score on a 6-yard run to make the score 21-10 Niners. The Niners defense once again forced another Miami punt, that lead to a Roger Craig 2-yard touchdown run, that would make the score 28-10 Niners. The Dolphins would kick two field goals to end the half to make the halftime score 28-15 Niners.
2nd Half The 2nd half was highlighted by the Niners defense sacking Marino twice and intercepting him twice in the end zone no less. The Niners would score on a field goal and another Roger Craig touchdown, his third of the game. The Niners finished the game with a Super Bowl record 537 total offensive yards, while the Dolphins only had 314 total yards with only 25 rushing yards. The Niners would also sack Marino four times after being the least sacked quarterback in the league during the year. The Niners would also intercept Marino twice in the end zone.
Postgame Notes: - Joe Montana would be the Super Bowl MVP and this was after he was made to look to be the lesser QB against Marino. - The famous Apple Macintosh future commercial was aired during this Super Bowl. Update!: This commercial actually ran in the Super Bowl before this one, but I'm leaving this video up because after all these years it's still a cool commercial.
- Don Shula had this to say after the game, "We were dominated to the point where one play didn't make much of a difference. Our major objective was to contain Montana, and we did a terrible, terrible job of it."
- "Came to see an offense, and the wrong one showed up."- Randy Cross, 49ers Center.
Network and Announcers: ESPN - Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge, SR: Holly Rowe
Favorite: Miami -3.5
49er16's Pick: Miami
Misc: Big 5 can't get a sponsorship deal with a bowl game?
Random Thoughts: This is the first bowl game in a week that features two teams ranked in the top 25. So the game should at least be interesting. Wisconsin is a running team while the Miami defense is really good at stopping the run. Needless to say I like Miami in this game.
