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Patriots can miss playoffs with 11-5 record

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP)—The New England Patriots need just two more wins to finish at an impressive 11-5 without Tom Brady—and possibly miss the playoffs.

Denver and Arizona could wind up at 8-8 and get in.

That’s the same Denver team the Patriots routed 41-7 in the seventh week of the season and the same Arizona team that has clinched the NFC West, but is an 8-point underdog to the Patriots in Foxborough on Sunday.

Nearly perfect last season, all the team of the decade can do is play its last two regular-season games and hope the outcomes of others help them reach the postseason for the sixth straight year—and give them another chance for their fourth title in eight years after finishing 18-1 with a Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants.

If Patriots coach Bill Belichick thinks it’s unfair for a team with three fewer wins to reach the playoffs while his team becomes the first 11-5 club to miss the postseason in 23 years, he’s not saying.

“I’m not even thinking about it. I’m not sure exactly what all the scenarios are. It doesn’t make any difference,” he said Monday. “There’s a million things that can happen and the only thing we can control is how we prepare and play against Arizona.”

His players are taking the same approach: win two games then see where they end up.

“I love the challenge,” safety Brandon Meriweather said. “I’m more excited than anything just to see how it’s all going to play out and see how well the team is going to play in the last couple games.”

The Patriots could dominate them the way they dominated Oakland in a 49-26 win Sunday and still be on the sidelines, as so many of their injured players are, when the playoffs begin. Of course, they also could finish at 9-7, while the Broncos and Cardinals can win their divisions at 10-6.

But the Patriots also will be favored in their last regular-season game, at Buffalo.

The Bills have lost seven of their last eight games and are winless in the AFC East. The other three teams in the division—New England, Miami and New York—are all 9-5, but the Dolphins and Jets would have the tiebreaker edge over the Patriots if all three finish with the same record.

The Patriots also need help in the wild-card race.

Indianapolis leads it at 10-4, faces a weak Jacksonville team on Thursday and would win a tiebreaker because it beat New England. Baltimore is currently second at 9-5 and also would win a tiebreaker over the Patriots with a better conference record if both are 11-5. But if the Ravens lose to Dallas or Jacksonville, the Patriots would edge them with two wins.

On Sunday, Meriweather will be focusing on Kurt Warner and the Cardinals’ strong passing attack, not on the scoreboard to see how other teams are doing.

“That’s something I would never do,” he said. “I’d rather take care of my own business and perform and make it on my own, so I’m really not concerning myself with other people just because that will stress you out and I’m trying not to be stressed at all.”

The only time in 30 years of the 16-game schedule when an 11-5 team missed the playoffs was in 1985, when Denver fell short. That also was the only year an 8-8 team, Cleveland, won its division.

That was the same season when the Patriots reached the Super Bowl for the first time, losing 46-10 to Chicago. New England won its first championship in the 2001 season, when it won the AFC East with an 11-5 record.

But that team wasn’t battered by injuries like this year’s club. Brady was lost for the season in the opener and safety Rodney Harrison, linebacker Adalius Thomas and running back Laurence Maroney are on injured reserve. Also sidelined are linebackers Tedy Bruschi and Pierre Woods, safety James Sanders and left tackle Matt Light, who left with a shoulder injury in the second quarter Sunday.

That has brought the healthy players closer.

“Everybody has to lean on each other because we knew once Tom, Hot Rod’s (Harrison) and all the other injuries happened, that everybody else was going to be against us and we had to pull together and carry each other,” Meriweather said.

Belichick said Monday he had no information that Light would miss the rest of the season, but that could change. Even without Light for the entire second half, the Patriots rushed for 277 yards Sunday and Matt Cassel was sacked just twice. Cassel threw for a career-high four touchdowns just six days after his father, Greg, died at age 57 in California.

Cassel stayed on the West Coast for Tuesday’s funeral and will return to prepare for Arizona.

The Cardinals began the weekend with the No. 2 passing attack in the NFL, but lost 35-14 to Minnesota as Warner threw just one scoring pass. But wide receivers Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald will go against a porous Patriots secondary..

“As we all know (they’re a) very high-scoring, quick-strike offensive football team,” Belichick said. “Some pretty dynamic receivers. So we’ve got a lot of work to do there.

“We’re down to a two-game season.” With a chance to play more, or not, if they win both.

D'Antoni still coach of Suns, for now

D’Antoni still coach of Suns, for now

East Valley Tribune

"For now, Mike D’Antoni remains the head coach of the Phoenix Suns. He says he wants to stay. General manager Steve Kerr says he wants D’Antoni to stay. But after an average of 58 wins a season but no trips beyond the Western Conference finals and in the wake of a frustrating first-round loss to San Antonio this season will D’Antoni return for a fifth season? Stay tuned. Kerr said a final resolution will come over the next few days when the two, supposedly with owner Robert Sarver also in the mix, get together to talk about the future of both D’Antoni and the franchise."

Bryant scores 20,000th career point

Bryant scores 20,000th career point

December 23, 2007 NEW YORK (TICKER) -- Kobe Bryant scored his 20,000th career point Sunday, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to reach the milestone.

Bryant achieved the feat when he drilled a 3-pointer with 11:08 remaining in the third quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers' matinee contest with the New York Knicks.

At 29 years, 122 days old, Bryant joined Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan as the only players in league history to score 20,000 points before the age of 30.

Yankee Stadium's final game

Yankee Stadium's final game

The House That Ruth Built, which opened in 1923, will host its final game in 2008

The final regular-season game at Yankee Stadium will be Sept. 21 against Baltimore, and New York is raising prices for its best box seats by $100 to $250.

The Yankees released their 2008 schedule and ticket prices on Monday for the last season in
The House That Ruth Built, which opened in 1923.

The team plans to move in 2009 into a new ballpark being built across the street in the Bronx.

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Report connects big names to performance-enhancing drugs

Barry Bonds has company – lots and lots of drug-tarnished company.

Major League Baseball players with links to performance-enhancing substances named in the Mitchell report.

NEW NAMES
Chad Allen Mike Bell Gary Bennett Larry Bigbie Kevin Brown Alex Cabrera Mark Carreon Jason Christiansen Howie Clark Roger Clemens Jack Cust Brendan Donnelly Chris Donnels Matt Franco Eric Gagne Matt Herges Phil Hiatt Glenallen Hill Todd Hundley Mike Judd David Justice Chuck Knoblauch Tim Laker Mike Lansing Paul Lo Duca Nook Logan Josias Manzanillo Cody McKay Kent Mercker Bart Miadich Hal Morris Daniel Naulty Denny Neagle Jim Parque Luis Perez Andy Pettitte Adam Piatt Todd Pratt Stephen Randolph Adam Riggs Armando Rios Brian Roberts F.P. Santangelo Mike Stanton Ricky Stone Miguel Tejada Ismael Valdez Mo Vaughn Ron Villone Fernando Vina Rondell White Jeff Williams Todd Williams Steve Woodard Kevin Young Gregg Zaun

PREVIOUSLY LINKED
Manny Alexander Rick Ankiel David Bell Marvin Benard Barry Bonds Ricky Bones Paul Byrd Ken CaminitiJose Canseco Paxton Crawford Lenny Dykstra Bobby Estalella Ryan Franklin Jason Giambi Jeremy Giambi Jay Gibbons Troy Glaus Juan Gonzalez Jason Grimsley Jose Guillen Jerry Hairston Jr. Darren Holmes Ryan Jorgensen Wally Joyner Gary Matthews Jr. Rafael Palmeiro John Rocker Benito Santiago Scott Schoeneweis David Segui Gary Sheffield Derrick TurnbowRandy Velarde Matt Williams

Question: What should the punishment be for these guys?

The Sports Billionaires

By Klaus Kneale, Forbes.com December 4, 2007

Owning a sports team can be a frustrating proposition. Expensive players get in trouble off the field. Coaches' egos need constant soothing. And fans are fleeting – especially if their team loses as ticket prices rise.

But for some billionaires, the allure of the victory – and the chance their team will soar in value – makes all the player misbehavior, years of rebuilding and negative press worth it.

Take Robert Kraft, the owner of the National Football League's darling New England Patriots. When Kraft bought the team in 1994 for a then-record $172 million, the team was a faltering money-loser, winning less than half its games since 1959, the year it started. Kraft transformed them into one of the most valuable sports franchises in the world, these days worth $1.2 billion.

On the arm of star quarterback Tom Brady, the Pats won three Super Bowls and have the best record in the league this season. The success of the team made Kraft a billionaire. The majority of his $1.4 billion fortune is wrapped up in the Patriots; the remainder comes from real estate and other investments, as well as the New England Revolution Major League Soccer team.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones struck it rich in natural gas in the 1970s. He bought the then-junky Cowboys for $158 million in 1989. Led by quarterback Troy Aikman and running back Emmitt Smith, the team won three Super Bowls in the 1990s. Today they're worth $1.5 billion before debt and sit atop the National Football Conference East, led by star quarterback Tony Romo.

Nearly all of Jones' $1.5 billion net worth is derived from the Cowboys; he recently sold $300 million worth of his personal real estate to help pay for the current construction of a new $1 billion Cowboys Stadium.

Vanity investors dominate Europe, buying soccer teams to own soccer teams, but making their fortunes elsewhere. Iceland's Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson made his $1.2 billion fortune in shipping, banking, real estate and beer brewing before buying soccer's West Ham United last November. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's richest man, built his $11.8 billion fortune through media investment; he became president of soccer's legendary squad A.C. Milan in 1986.

But the king of them all has to be Roman Abramovich, the 41-year-old Russian oil guru who spent a tiny fraction of his $18.7 billion net worth to scoop up debt-heavy U.K. soccer giant Chelsea in 2003. Once reviled for his moves, he grew on fans after immediately spending more than $170 million on new players. The squad's 2004-2005 season is considered its most successful season ever, and the team's value is up 58 percent since Abramovich bought the team – despite not winning a championship or building a new stadium.

And some owners were once players. Detroit Tigers owner Michael Ilitch left his dreams of playing pro baseball behind after an injury forced him to hang up his cleats in the minor leagues. He spent decades building his Little Caesar's Pizza into one of the largest chains in America, using the proceeds to buy up his hometown teams. Ilitch bought hockey's Detroit Red Wings in 1982 for $8 million, today worth $293 million. He bought the Tigers for $82 million 10 years later; they're now worth more than $350 million.

Winning isn't always everything. Ask Charles Dolan, owner of the NBA's New York Knicks. Last year, Dolan, who owns the Knicks through cable giant, paid his players a league-high $118 million; they put up the second-worst record in the league. No problem: The team is worth $592 million, the highest in the NBA.