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Deep Posts: Super Bowl Edition [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 5, 2012, 9:09 am] Since the actual Super Bowl game doesn't start until late this afternoon/evening at the very earliest (and Tuesday afternoon at the very latest), let's throw a few longer reads out there to get you through the interminable wait... -- Chris Brown of Smart Football has a brilliant piece up about the Vince Wilfork of the Patriots, and how Wilfork's gap versatility on the New England defensive line allows Bill Belichick to run one- and two-gap schemes in ways that other teams simply can't. Bonus: You'll get a good primer on the hybrid fronts that have taken over the NFL in recent years. [Grantland] -- Who was the hidden factor behind the mellowing Tom Coughlin had to undergo if he was ever to reach his players? Kurt Warner, in the one season he played for the New York Giants. In 2004, Coughlin's first year as head coach, the players were revolting against the coach's military-level discipline, and Coughlin asked Warner to list the things he needed to change to be a success. "Go home and make a list of all the things you think I need to do better as a coach," Warner recalled Coughlin saying, "and don't hold back." Warner did as he was asked, scribbling "page after page after page," he said. "There were times when I was worried that I would hurt his feelings or damage our friendship," Warner said. "But deep down I knew he'd never hold it against me as long as I did it with his best interests at heart." [NJ.com] -- The always-excellent Mike Garafolo has an interesting piece on the "ghost pressure" that can affect all quarterbacks, including Tom Brady. The New York Giants will do their best to affect Brady with what he can see ... and what he can't. [NJ.com] -- And for those teams stuck in the abyss ... well, how is it possible to turn a franchise around, as Coughlin and Bill Belichick have done with theirs? Bill Lubinger hypothesizes that four factors must come into play: Stability, leadership, talent -- especially at quarterback, and the buy-in. Easier said than done, Smarter Stats: Super Bowl Edition — New England’s offense vs. New York’s defense [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 5, 2012, 5:50 am] Of course, the big story surrounding New England's offense is the health of tight end Rob Gronkowski. He's been practicing on a limited basis, but if Gronk can't go at full speed, it's a problem -- he was targeted 15 times (a season high) against New York in Week 9, and caught eight passes for 101 yards and a touchdown. Just as important was the way the Giants reacted to the tight end -- they often shifted their coverages to match him if he moved from inline or went in motion from one side to another. Clearly, he is the focus point for every enemy defense. What Gronkowski can do, even if he can't run and plant and cut at his normal level, is block at a level that no other tight end in the NFL can match. In the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens, Gronk was asked to take Terrell Suggs one-on-one and did that very well. But it was the extent to which he was able to either pull or slide inside and deal with Baltimore's interior pass rush -- specifically that brought by super-tackle Haloti Ngata -- that was so impressive. A half-healthy Gronk who could still block at his normal level would still be almost as valuable as if he was 100 percent, because two of the few carryovers from Super Bowl XLII are these: The Giants still bring furious pressure from the inside (especially with Justin Tuck), and Tom Brady still has trouble dealing with pressure right in his face. We saw far more of Gronk as a receiver than as a blocker the last time he faced the Giants, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't handle Tuck -- it just means that he'd be doing different things in this game. Actually, don't be surprised if the Patriots do a lot of different things to counteract New York's pass rush and multiple fronts. In Week 9, according to Football Outsiders' game-charting data, the Pats went with six offensive linemen on 13 of their offensive snaps. As the Ravens and Steelers do, New England likes running out of bunch formations, and they'll throw some interesting positi Puppy Bowl VIII: The Scouting Report [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 9:47 pm] The Puppy Bowl, the world's finest example of counter-programming, has become a Super Sunday staple. Puppy Bowl VIII debuts on Sunday at 3 p.m. on Animal Planet. What follows is a brief and 100% false scouting report of the top competitors in Sunday's competition. Prancer. Female. Shih Tzu/Chihuahua Mix. Prancer has been a lonesome drifter since Jerry Garcia's death in 1995 and the time of her last bath in unknown. Prancer lacks the aggression of some of the fiercer animals in the field, but her toughness is legendary. This will be Prancer's first Puppy Bowl, but she's competed for years in the underground equivalent, the Cage of Puppy Mayhem, which is contested on a concrete floor in a dirty basement in Queens (Spike TV counterprograms it against the World Series of Poker). Prancer is a two-time CPM champion, winning once with two broken legs. They have never healed. Friday. Male. Maltese/Poodle Mix. Friday's foofie appearance belies an inner anger born out of years of trying to convince people that he's a boy. He's not a powerhouse and his mouth is small â just big enough to bite off the tip of a human pinky. Friday has 53 human pinkies in his collection. Malie. Female. Pit Bull Mix. The rumor on the Puppy Bowl sidelines is that Michael Vick once looked at Malie and said, "Nope. I ain't messin' with that one," and then peed on himself. Vick had a mistaken impression, though â Malie isn't a vicious, ill-tempered, dog-beast; she just looks like it. She'll fare well in the competition based on intimidation alone, but inside, she's nothing but a well-meaning sweetheart who loves children, because people get really mad when you say that Pit Bulls are mean. Leroy Brown. Male. Chihuahua/Terrier Mix. Leroy Brown may one day be an inspiring story about an alcoholic who turned his life around, but for now, Leroy Brown is still just an alcoholic, and a dangerous one at that. Leroy's lack of a conscience or anything to live for make him dangerous inside the Puppy Bo Giants get ahead of themselves with ‘Super Bowl Champions’ home page … on Saturday [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 8:05 pm] The "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline is the most famous example of premature jocularity in media history, but on Saturday, the New York Giants inadvertently came a little too close to that mistake for a while on their official homepage: Uh, yeah. They haven't kicked anything off just yet, guys. Of course, the web team for each franchise has to prepare these graphics in advance so that they can go right up for the winning side, someone on the Giants' tech group clearly put this up on the real site when they were looking for the back door. Of course, the page was taken down quickly. "It is common practice for both teams to create web pages in advance of the conference championship games and Super Bowl," the NFL said in a statement. "In this case, the hidden URL for the page was inadvertently available for a brief period of time while it was being positioned on the NFL server for possible post tomorrow night." I don't know ... the Giants have been cocky all week about their chances. Maybe the web guys just caught the fever. On Tuesday, Giants defensive lineman Chris Canty said that New Yorkers should get ready for a victory parade. Pats receiver Deion Branch responded that, well, anybody can throw a parade. Perennially braggadocious safety Antrel Rolle said that the Giants wouldn't have boarded the plane for Indianapolis if they expected to lose. And during Tuesday's media session. Rolle laid it out like this: "We're going to win this thing. We're going to win this thing for a lot of good reasons." Makes sense, of course, You don't want to come to a Super Bowl thinking you're going to get waxed. Even a few Buffalo Bills had to think they had a shot in the days before their fourth straight Lombardi loss in the early 1990s. But that splash page? Not so much. The Giants may indeed be using that page sooner than later, but you know what they say about counting your chickens... Smarter Stats: Super Bowl Edition — Giants’ offense vs. Patriots’ defense [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 7:04 pm] On the surface, Super Bowl XLVI looks like a close game, but eminently winnable (and probably won) by the New York Giants over the New England Patriots. In the Week 9 game between these two teams, the Giants beat the Patriots, 24-20, despite the absences of their primary wideout (Hakeem Nicks) and their most explosive running back (Ahmad Bradshaw). Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin have been saying all week that Super Bowl XLII doesn't really factor into this game at all -- and they would be correct -- but the Week 9 game provides some very interesting clues as to how this game could go. In the interest of going beyond the simple stats, we'll start with a few defensive adjustments the Patriots have made since that game -- and one they'd better make if they hope to win on Sunday. Giants offense vs. Patriots defense Eli Manning has been one of the best quarterbacks in the league with three-receiver sets through the 2011 season, but he wasn't successful at all out of that formation against the Patriots â per Football Outsiders' game-charting, Manning threw 22 passes with three receivers on the field and competed just eight for 109 yards. Victor Cruz (Manning's not-so-secret slot weapon) was the targeted receiver on seven of those passes, and he caught two for 30 yards. That's interesting, because the Giants ran more plays out of three-wide than any team in the NFL, and the Patriots were at their worst defensively against that formation, per ESPN Stats & Info. The Giants were scrambling because Nicks was out of the game, but it's the Patriots who will be scrambling if they don't run more defensive sets with extra DBs this time around. In the first half of Week 9, the Pats put five or six defensive backs on the field nine time when Manning threw a pass. Manning completed just three of those passes for 24 yards. The Pats didn't go nickel or dime at all in the second half, but they had a fairly decent reason. They lost two of their most important defensive players -- l Curtis Martin’s mother helped drive him to the Hall of Fame [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 6:55 pm] Among the Curtis Martin's many accomplishments during his 11-year NFL career, dating singer Toni Braxton remains among the greatest feats on the running back's resume. But on Saturday evening, Martin was honored for what he did playing on the field and not just playing the field when he was selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The running back, who finished with 14,101 rushing yards and 100 all-purpose touchdowns, spent three years with the New England Patriots and the remainder of his career in New York with the Jets. Flanking Martin will be fellow selectees Dermonti Dawson, Chris Doleman , Cortez Kennedy, Willie Roaf and senior selection Jack Butler, all of whom will take their place in Canton this August to be inducted for their outstanding careers. On the ballot last year but failing to get the necessary votes, Martin is fourth on the all-time rushing list and in 2004 became the oldest player to win an NFL rushing title. The year before he won the rushing title, Martin had just two rushing touchdowns and there was talk of him being over the hill and unable to carry the load as a featured running back. His 1,697 yards on 371 carries in that season are still both Jets records and perhaps sealed the deal in terms of his Canton candidacy. "I heard a lot of talk about me being washed up and old, whether or not there were so many miles on the tires and all of that. To be able to come out and feel the way I felt and have the year that I had that year -that was tremendous to me. To actually win a rushing title, if I could say that I had one individual goal as an athlete, as a running back, it was to win the rushing title," Martin said after learning of his induction. "That meant a lot to me because I felt as though I could do that the following year. Unfortunately, I had that career-ending injury, but I would say the best I ever felt in my career was during the latter part of it." While Martin's career was cut short the next season due to a knee injury, Patriots heartlessly release Tiquan Underwood on the eve of Super Bowl XLVI [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 5:46 pm] Tiquan Underwood, the guy who loved being a Patriot so much that he did that to his hair, was released by the team on Saturday, just hours before the Super Bowl. It's callous and it's cold-blooded, but that's football, and that's Bill Belichick. I'm sure that Underwood is emotionally devastated, but that's a head coach's job. If he feels like another player might help a little more on Sunday, even if it's just for one play, then it's the coach's job to make that decision. Feelings aren't a part of it. Underwood probably didn't expect this, but he's no stranger to being released, either. It's the third time the Patriots have cut him this season. What might make it even harder on the guy is that he didn't do anything wrong. According to the Boston Herald, the move has no disciplinary motive behind it. The Patriots simply wanted another defensive lineman on the roster. Alex Silvestro (ironically, like Underwood, a Rutgers product) is the guy who will take his place. He's been on the Patriots practice squad all season. In the grand scheme of things, Underwood still has to count himself lucky. He was a part of a Super Bowl team. He experienced everything about Super Bowl week except for the Super Bowl itself. And if the Patriots go on to win, he'll still get a ring, and it will be just as big and shiny as Tom Brady's or Wes Welker's. Butler, Dawson, Doleman, Kennedy, Martin and Roaf make the 2012 Hall of Fame cut [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 4:33 pm] The 2012 Pro Football Hall of Fame cast has been announced, and the six named to the game's greatest honor this year were Jack Butler, Dermontti Dawson, Chris Doleman, Cortez Kennedy, Curtis Martin and Willie Roaf. It's a very interesting class, as you can see. (Player bios provided in part by the Pro Football Hall of Fame). Jack Butler, Cornerback: 1951-59 Pittsburgh Steelers Butler joined the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1951 as a free agent out of St. Bonaventure. Over the next nine NFL seasons, he established himself as one of the game's most effective cornerbacks. He ranked as the NFL's second all-time leading interceptor when he retired following the 1959 season. In 103 games, Butler intercepted 52 passes which he returned for 827 yards, and had four pick-sixes. He also had four touchdown receptions and returned one fumble recovery for a score. Butler was named to the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1950s. After his playing career, he was involved in BLESTO, the scouting service that eventually led to the scouting combine and the current explosion of draft coverage. Dermontti Dawson, Center 1988-2000 Pittsburgh Steelers Dawson, a second round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1988, had a knee injury interrupt his rookie season. Despite the injury, he managed to start five of eight games that year at guard. The following year he replaced future Hall of Famer Mike Webster as the Pittsburgh's starting center. He remained an anchor of the Steelers' front line for the remainder of his 13-season NFL career. Dawson, who also served as the team's long snapper through 1993, earned his first Pro Bowl berth following the 1992 season. It marked the first of seven straight Pro Bowl invitations. Dawson played in 184 regular season games and his 170 consecutive games played ranks second in club history. Named a center on the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1990s, Dawson started in three AFC championship games and was Pittsburgh's starting center in Supe Ten things to know about Super Bowl XLVI halftime [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 12:04 pm] 10. The NFL is ready to accept women again. Madonna is the first female invited to headline the Super Bowl halftime show since Janet Jackson did what she did back in 2004 (technically, last year's act, the Black Eyes Peas were 25% female, but I think we'd all like to just forget that happened). Madonna has guaranteed that there will be no wardrobe malfunctions, which is just as well, because if there's any part of Madonna you'd like to see, she likely exposed it publicly long ago. 9. Madonna is doing this for free (kind of). Curious about how much the NFL is paying Madonna for her services on Sunday? Nada. Madonna's doing this one for free. What she does get out of the deal is nearly immeasurable exposure. More than 110 million people are going to watch this, and she has 12 minutes to do whatever she wants. For comparison's sake, last week, 19.6 million people watched American Idol. As far as I know, American Idol doesn't just give away 12-minute segments to anyone who wants them. Perhaps not coincidentally ⦠8. Madonna has an album coming out in March. MDNA, Madonna's 12th studio album, will be available for purchase on March 26th. One single from the album, "Give Me All Your Luvin'" has been released, and you'll likely hear a portion of it performed on Sunday. You can see the football-themed video, featuring Nicki Minaj, right here. 7. It's not just Madonna, you know. Other musical acts will include the afore-mentioned Nicki Minaj, Cee-Lo Green, LMFAO, and M.I.A. If Roger Goodell likes them, perhaps they can get their own halftime show when they're 60. Several high school drumlines will also be involved, as will Cirque du Soleil. I don't know how anything will sound, but if the Cirque people are involved, it's at least going to be visually stunning. 6. Madonna was not a particularly youthful selection. For her age, she looks amazing, but Madonna is still old enough to be the mother of the oldest player in Super Bowl XLVI. That would be Kevin Faulk, Patriots run Why one team won’t have cheerleaders at Super Bowl XLVI [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 8:09 am] The pompoms are back. Sort of. Sideline spectators have another reason to tune into Super Bowl XLVI: After a drought last year with the cheerless Green Bay/Pittsburgh championship, cheerleaders will be returning to the sidelines. The burden, though, will rest on the New England Patriots: The New York Giants are one of six NFL teams that don't have pro cheer squads. (In addition to Packers, Steelers and Giants, the Chicago Bears,Cleveland Browns, and Detroit Lions also do not use cheerleading squads.) The New York Giants are resolutely anti-pom. "Philosophically we have always had issues with sending scantily clad women out on the field to entertain our fans," Giants co-owner John Mara told the New York Times in back in 2010. The Patriots ladies should be able to handle double-duty, given that at least one CNBC columnist has dubbed them the best squad of 2012. Might that mean the Patriots have an unfair advantage in Indianapolis? Not according to Tracy Sormanti, serving her sixth Super Bowl tour of duty as director for the Patriots cheerleaders. For three of those six games, Sormanti points out in an email, "we've been a 'solo' squad." On those occasions when rival cheerleaders shared turf, there was bound to be more air kissing than smack talk: The ladies made co-promotional appearances, dined together, and shared rehearsal space on game days. "There isn't a competitiveness between the ladies of the sidelines like there is between the football players on the field," Sormanti explains. "There's a great deal of camaraderie and that is missed when there is only one squad." One thing did get Sormanti politely riled: A Wall Street Journal article, hinting at a correlation, noted recently that teams without cheerleaders won four of the last Super Bowls. "Seriously? We've got Belichick, Brady, Welker, Wilfork, Gronk, etc.," the director lists. "As much as I'd LOVE to say the cheerleaders have SUCH a pull in a Super Bowl win/loss, I'm going to say we'll just leav The Shutdown Corner Interview: Jerry Rice, Part 2 [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 7:30 am] In the conclusion of Shutdown Corner's interview with Jerry Rice from the Media Center, we ask the man who has done more in the Super Bowl than anyone else to break down Sunday's big game. Who has the advantage at quarterback? Just how much would Rob Gronkowski's absence (or relative lack of participation) affect the Patriots' offense? And just how concerned should the Patriots be about Victor Cruz? Jerry is also in Indianapolis to promote the new NFL Films DVD though Vivendi Entertainment, Greatest Super Bowl Moments. Beginning with the first World Championship of Pro Football in 1967 when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs to the epic game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers last year, Greatest Super Bowl Moments details and highlights key moments from every Super Bowl. Using footage, sideline sound and exclusive player wiring from NFL Films, this DVD is the historical collection of the greatest spectacle in pro sports. Greatest Super Bowl Moments is a must-have program for any football fan to relive some of the most memorable plays that have helped shape the history of the NFL. The Shutdown Corner Interview: Jerry Rice, Part 1 [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 7:07 am] In this exclusive interview from the Super Bowl Media Center, Jerry Rice talked to Shutdown Corner about the NFL then and now. In Part 1, the greatest receiver ever to play the game started things off with remembrances of his days with the San Francisco 49ers: Catching passes from Joe Montana and Steve Young, learning from Bill Walsh, and the drives that define a champion. Jerry is also in Indianapolis to promote the new NFL Films DVD though Vivendi Entertainment,Greatest Super Bowl Moments. Beginning with the first World Championship of Pro Football in 1967 when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs to the epic game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers last year, Greatest Super Bowl Moments details and highlights key moments from every Super Bowl. Using footage, sideline sound and exclusive player wiring from NFL Films, this DVD is the historical collection of the greatest spectacle in pro sports. Greatest Super Bowl Moments is a must-have program for any football fan to relive some of the most memorable plays that have helped shape the history of the NFL. Radio Row Video: Marcell Dareus of the Buffalo Bills [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 4, 2012, 3:20 am] In this exclusive interview for Yahoo! Sports, Buffalo Bills standout defensive tackle Marcell Dareus gives us the inside take on first year in the NFL, talks about his impressive versatility across the defensive line, talks about his New Era Bills hat, dispenses wisdom to Tom Brady about the hotels in Buffalo, praises teammate Kyle Williams for showing him the ropes, waxes eloquent about head coach Chan Gailey, and says that if Nick Saban ever wants to coach again in the NFL, he's going to have to lighten up a little bit. Not to be outdone, Tecmo Bowl also predicts a Giants win [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 3, 2012, 8:14 pm] It has yet to be determined if Giselle's prayers will provide some divine intervention for her husband Tom Brady on Sunday, but if Tecmo Bowl has anything to say about it, the New England Patriots quarterback will have a slow walk in his Uggs back to the team bus after the game. Earlier this week, the Madden video game franchise announced that you don't even need to turn into this Sunday's Super Bowl since their simulation had the New York Giants beating the Patriots 27-24. That certainly frees up your evening to focus on the commercials or to watch the Nora Roberts movie marathon on Lifetime. But Gridiron Heroes takes the predictions one step further and with far more nostalgia making their prognostications based on the classic Tecmo Bowl video game series of the 1980's. Modernizing the game with current players and stats, Gridiron Heroes ran its own simulation with the Giants beating the Patriots24-7 (no word on the pixilation quality of Bill Belichick in his hoodie). The Giants romp was salsa-flavored, with wide receiver Victor Cruz leading the stat line with six catches for 159 yards and touchdowns. The Giants also had six sacks, essentially sticking the Patriots offense in neutral. The simulation, run by Gridiron Heroes founders and developers Matt Knobbe of TecmoBowl.org and Dave Murray of Pixel Rampage have Brady throwing for only 157 yards. "What makes the Madden prediction better? Because they spent days trying to project Rob Gronkowski's ankle? We spent two hours on the simulation....total." Murray said. "We did it without spending millions of dollars to ensure that we wouldn't have any competition. All of that, and both of us still predicted the Giants. If we're talking accuracy, would you honestly trust either game enough to fly to Vegas and bet the house?" Murray said his simulation took just two hours. There has been an uptick of interest surrounding all things Tecmo related over the past few years, including re-releases of the game on newer co Shutdown Corner previews and predicts Super Bowl XLVI [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 3, 2012, 3:15 pm] Shutdown Corner's panel of bloggers, and one very special guest, looks at five of the biggest Super Bowl questions. 1. Which part of Super Bowl XLVII are you looking forward to most? MJD: Hour number three of NBC's six-hour pregame show. Nick Cannon is hosting their red-carpet coverage! OMG! Chris Chase: To see if Bill Belichick's secondary is so depleted that he'll have to bring in said Mr. Cannon. Maggie Hendricks: Seeing how the Giants defense, and particularly their pass rush, deal with the Patriots' passing attack. Also, seeing if Bill Belichick wears a fancy cut up sweatshirt, or if he'll stick with what got him to the big game. Fake Jon Gruden: The big hittin' from that New York Giants defensive front four. I call those guys "NYPD Blue" because they're tough, powerful and sometimes get in trouble for excessive contact. 2. If the Patriots win, what does this do for Tom Brady's legacy? Maggie Hendricks: Brady's legacy is already cemented as one of the best quarterbacks of his generation. This win would remove "of his generation" from the sentence. MJD: I'm with Maggie. Handsome Tom is already in the conversation for the G.O.A.T., and if he wins it all again, post-2008 knee catastrophe, with a completely different cast, and a sieve-like defense, it just bolsters his legend. Chris Chase: Winning four Super Bowls will go down as Brady's second-greatest achievement, right behind locking down Gisele for a long-term contract. Fake Jon Gruden: Lemme tell ya, Tom Brady is already one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the National Football League. That guy can play. 3. Despite the conversations that will doubtlessly take place if it happens, Eli winning a second Super Bowl won't mean he's better than Peyton. Right? RIGHT? MJD: Right. I'm really tired of the notion that the measure of a quarterback is the amount of Super Bowl rings he owns. It's simplistic, reductive, unfair and dismissive of about a million other factors that matter. Chris Chase: Wait, MJ With help from a police escort, Giants get their hometown pizza in Indianapolis [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 3, 2012, 2:52 pm] Super Bowl week is not the week to be breaking traditions. That's why the Giants ordered pizza from Umberto's this week, just as they always do. And Umberto's, bless their heart, extended their delivery area by just a smidge â out to Indianapolis. Thursday morning, Gaetano Corteo, manager of Umberto's, had a police escort to La Guardia airport in Queens. Special arrangements had been made at the airport to get the pizzas, in heat-retaining bags, through security quickly. The flight from La Guardia to Indianapolis is only two hours and 20 minutes non-stop, so the pizza was there for lunchtime. The Giants have been ordering from Umberto's for years. According to the New York Post, the Friday ritual started with Michael Strahan four years ago, and David Diehl and Justin Tuck are among those continuing the tradition. Oh, and in case you're worried about such things, the police escort didn't come at taxpayer expense, either. Nassau Sheriff Michael Sposato donated his car, according to CBS New York, and a couple of retired officers accompanied them on motorcycle. In other Super Bowl pizza-related news, TMZ reports that Madonna â who they call "Madge" for some reason â bought 50 pizzas last night for her entourage. She went with a local Papa John's, though, unlike those diva Giants. Neil O'Donnell approves. Why Is This News: Doug Farrar on Super Bowl XLVI [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 3, 2012, 2:23 pm] Post by Jay Busbee It's Super Bowl time, and since nobody on the planet covers the Super Bowl better than Yahoo! Sports' Shutdown Corner (it's true), we brought on SC head honcho Doug Farrar to talk a bit o' football. Doug's a busy man, so we only got him for a few minutes, but he gave us the lowdown on the following: ⢠His prediction for the game. (Spoiler: someone's going to lose!) ⢠Which element of the Giants' offense/Patriots' defense (and vice versa) will determine the outcome of the game. ⢠Whether this is a referendum on the greatness of Eli Manning, and whether the Giants now have a dynasty in the making. ⢠How Peyton Manning could reshape the NFL as we know it ... or not. ⢠Whether he interviewed Madonna or Drew Brees. From there, we segue into Super Bowl party tips, justifications for rooting for (or against) yet another Boston team win, the godawful ads, and so on. It's good stuff, and we think you will enjoy it. Really. We do. WHY IS THIS NEWS is the Yahoo! Sports Blogs' all-sports podcast, covering sports (and movies, and television, and whatever else strikes our fancy) through the eyes of our esteemed experts. We, as always, are Jay Busbee, the editor of From The Marbles and Devil Ball, and Kevin Kaduk, the editor of Big League Stew, and you are our reader/listener, and we thank you for that. To play the podcast, click the link below or save it on your computer. You can also click on the iTunes button below (or right here) to subscribe through iTunes, or the RSS button below (or right here) to run the feed to other players. And if you can't get enough, you can follow us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @bigleaguestew for further updates. And follow Doug too at @SC_DougFarrar. Seeya! Why Is This News 48: Shutdown Corner's Doug Farrar ‘Why Is This News’ podcast: Doug Farrar on Super Bowl XLVI [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 3, 2012, 2:23 pm] Post by Jay Busbee It's Super Bowl time, and since nobody on the planet covers the Super Bowl better than Yahoo! Sports' Shutdown Corner (it's true), we brought on SC head honcho Doug Farrar to talk a bit o' football. Doug's a busy man, so we only got him for a few minutes, but he gave us the lowdown on the following: ⢠His prediction for the game. (Spoiler: someone's going to lose!) ⢠Which element of the Giants' offense/Patriots' defense (and vice versa) will determine the outcome of the game. ⢠Whether this is a referendum on the greatness of Eli Manning, and whether the Giants now have a dynasty in the making. ⢠How Peyton Manning could reshape the NFL as we know it ... or not. ⢠Whether he interviewed Madonna or Drew Brees. From there, we segue into Super Bowl party tips, justifications for rooting for (or against) yet another Boston team win, the godawful ads, and so on. It's good stuff, and we think you will enjoy it. Really. We do. WHY IS THIS NEWS is the Yahoo! Sports Blogs' all-sports podcast, covering sports (and movies, and television, and whatever else strikes our fancy) through the eyes of our esteemed experts. We, as always, are Jay Busbee, the editor of From The Marbles and Devil Ball, and Kevin Kaduk, the editor of Big League Stew, and you are our reader/listener, and we thank you for that. To play the podcast, click the link below or save it on your computer. You can also click on the iTunes button below (or right here) to subscribe through iTunes, or the RSS button below (or right here) to run the feed to other players. And if you can't get enough, you can follow us on Twitter at @jaybusbee and @bigleaguestew for further updates. And follow Doug too at @SC_DougFarrar. Seeya! Why Is This News 48: Shutdown Corner's Doug Farrar         Tom Brady: Master of the schemes [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 3, 2012, 12:52 pm] Among all the many things that makes Tom Brady such a great quarterback, perhaps the most valuable and overlooked trait is his ability to change schemes through his career, master those different concepts, and keep playing at an elite level. Most quarterbacks, especially when they become superstars, tend to take their playbooks with them (in a figurative sense) when they switch teams and/or systems. Drew Brees went from Cam Cameron's vertical concepts to Sean Payton's Mardi Gras of receiver formations when he moved from San Diego to New Orleans, but Peyton Manning ran the same base offense for most of the last decade â the Colts went with more three-wide, single-back sets on an annual basis through Manning's tenure there than any team in the league. And if Manning switches teams in the offseason, you can bet that he'll take a lot of his "check-with-me" playcalling options with him. Rarer still is the quarterback like Brady, who has seen a kaleidoscope of offensive systems since he became the team's starter in 2001 â and he has mastered them all. When I asked Brady about this in April of 2011, he reacted as if such schematic versatility was the norm. "I think I've been very fortunate to play in the same system my entire career. So even though the coordinators have changed, even though the players have changed, I think what our offense has always allowed its players to do is be flexible within the system. We're going to do what best suits the talents of our players. So I've been in the ⦠like you said, the Corey Dillon-type offense, I've been in the more of a spread offense, more of a shotgun. And I think that I'm very comfortable in doing whatever it takes for us to win. That's the goal. It's not 'Ok, we need to throw it 60% of the time', we need to get the ball in the end zone, and however we're going to get the ball in the end zone, that's how we're going to run our offense." Sounds easy when he says it, but it's a bit like Jerry Rice explaining how he beats Celebrities side with New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI predictions [Yahoo! Sports: Blogs: February 3, 2012, 12:34 pm] With Sunday's game between the New York Giants and New England Patriots approaching, Scripps Howard released the results of its annual Super Bowl Celebrity Pool. Many of the entrants stayed true to their hometown teams. (John McEnroe and Rudy Giuliani sided with the Giants, while John Kerry went for New England.) Some gave personal reasons for their picks. (Arnold Schwarzenegger said he's picking New England because Tom Brady is his neighbor. Dale Earnhardt Jr. couldn't get over his Washington Redskins beating New York twice this season, so he went with New England.) And others, like Barry Williams, who played Greg Brady on "The Brady Bunch," went with family ties. A sampling of Scripps Howard picks, as well as some others that have made news recently, are below: Picked the New York Giants Arnold Palmer, golf legend, 28-17 Maya Angelou, poet, 20-7 John McEnroe, tennis legend, 24-21 Haley Joel Osmont, actor, 34-31 Joan Jett, singer/rock & roll lover, 38-35 Rudy Giuliani, former New York mayor, 30-20 Bill O'Reilly, TV host, 27-24 Keith Olbermann, TV host, 27-17 Octavia Spencer, Academy Award nominee, 27-24 Yogi Berra, Yankees Hall of Famer, 23-20 Mark Cuban, NBA owner, 38-31 Dick Vitale, college basketball analyst, 27-21 Michael K. Williams, Omar, no score given Bob Weir, Grateful Dead guitarist, 35-31 Hulk Hogan, wrestling legend, 24-17 Picked the New England Patriots Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor/actor/Terminator, 31-24 Chuck Yeager, flight hero, 31-27 Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR driver, no score given Don Rickles, comedian, 28-14 Abby Wombach, soccer star, 27-17 John Kerry, Massachusetts senator, 31-24 Paul Pierce, Celtics forward, 35-17 Barry Williams, eldest "Brady Bunch" son, 31-17 Lindsey Vonn, Olympic gold medalist, 23-20 Vanilla Ice, dope melody player, 31-21 Jack Nicklaus, golf legend, 31-28 Andy Williams, Nelson Muntz's favorite singer, 13-10 Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Olympic legend, 20-17 Laura Kaeppeler, Miss America/Aaron Rodgers fan, no score given Di |