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– via The NY Jets –
The Jets have just announced that Tony Sparano has been named their offensive coordinator. The team will distribute a news release on the hiring later today. More information to come here shortly.
*Personally -> Welcome to the NY Jets Coach Sparano
via Sporting News
NEW YORK — Jets running back LaDainian Tomlinson has told a San Diego radio station that he is considering calling an end to his 11-year NFL career.
The 32-year-old Tomlinson told the Scott & BR Show on XX1090AM on Friday that he is “contemplating retirement.”
The running back said he had told his agent and coaches of his position, saying that chasing a championship would be his main motivation to return.
Tomlinson, a likely Hall of Famer, finished the season with 280 yards rushing and 449 yards receiving and three touchdowns in his second season with the Jets.
The former Chargers star became a leader on a team that failed to make the playoffs after beginning the season with championship aspirations.
On a personal note, it was a pleasure running into LT this past season… he’s truly a class act and a great player (to say the least)
We’re normally not mean nor do we like to highlight negative things here at the office, BUT the other day 1 of our Jets Flight Crew members got engaged on the field prior to the game.
I always wondered: what would happen if they say no? And sure enough, it happened at the UCLA Game
and kind of similar to this at a Rockets game
Conclusion? Fellas don’t propose at Basketball games… Football or Baseball is the way to go!
Thanks to a near-flawless defensive effort, a 131-yard rushing performance from Jawan Jamison, and an 86-yard scoring bomb to Brandon Coleman from Chas Dodd, Rutgers won for the second time at Yankee Stadium in a seven-week span, turning back Iowa State 27-13 in the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.
BOX SCORE: Rutgers 27, Iowa State 13
“To be able to win it at home, it’s a lot of fun,” Schiano said after his team notched its fifth consecutive bowl win. “Really, really proud of our kids. We worked hard in preparation. Season certainly didn’t end the way we wanted with (the loss at) Connecticut. When you’re in New York City, that can be a distraction and a temptation, but they kind of know when it’s time to work, it’s time to work.”
A crowd of 38,328 — much of which was filled with scarlet-clad Rutgers fans — watched the Scarlet Knights rally from an early 6-0 deficit and cap a 9-4 campaign.
“The season didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but being able to finish on a strong note — and coming out here and winning — it’s huge,” said Dodd, who threw for 176 yards on 10-for-17 passing while splitting quarterback duties with Gary Nova.
Forced to carry the load in the absence of backup Jeremy Deering (ankle injury), Jamison scored from a yard out on fourth-and-goal and from 12 yards and San San Te shook off a long first-quarter miss by drilling a 21-yard field goal as Rutgers took a 17-6 advantage into intermission.
“I want to carry the load,” said Jamison, who was named the Pinstripe Bowl MVP after averaging 4.9 yards on 27 carries. “I want to be that guy that everybody can depend on. Thanks to my O-line, I was able to do that tonight.”
After yielding field goals on two of Iowa State’s first three series, Rutgers’ defense wrestled control for the middle two quarters. The Cyclones totaled 188 yards and converted just one of 10 first downs before mounting a charge early in the final stanza.
Jeff Woody’s 20-yard rushing score capped a nine-play, 76-yard march that pulled the Cyclones (6-7) within a touchdown with 10 minutes to play.
But after both teams exchanged three-and-outs, Dodd fired 40 yards deep to the 6-foot-6 Coleman, who outjumped his diminutive cornerback to haul in the reception before marching the final 46 yards for the final margin.
“I thought it was a great call by Frank,” Schiano said, referring to offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti. “We said going into the game we had a height advantage on their cornerbacks and we needed to make sure that we took enough shots down the field, and we did. That’s a huge turning point in the game.”
The Scarlet Knights never looked back from there, outgaining their Big 12 foe 369-311 in total yards from scrimmage and getting key plays in the specialty units, including a blocked field goal from Justin Francis, a 49.7 yards-per-punt average from Justin Doerner and field goals of 21 and 29 yards from Te.
“They believe in what (special teams) coach (Robb) Smith coaches,” Schiano said, “and they are willing to lay it on the line for him.”
As the game ended, Schiano enjoyed a cold Gatorade bath before hoisting his fifth bowl championship trophy in the past six years. He then looked up to the Yankee Stadium big screen, where he saw a live video of paralyzed player Eric LeGrand sitting in the radio booth.
“Hey ‘Big E,’ ” Schiano shouted over the stadium’s public-address microphone. “This one’s for you.”
The players then went to the Yankee Stadium warning track, where they sang in unison the school’s alma mater with the band providing the music. The Rutgers crowd then serenaded a chant of “one more year” to star wideout Mohamed Sanu, a junior who remains undecided on whether to return or declare early for the 2012 NFL Draft.
“That meant a lot,” said Sanu, who declined to offer a timeline on when he may decide. “I love our fans, I love playing for them, and I’m listening to some of the things they had to say.”
If there was a downside to the victory it was the sight of fourth-year junior linebacker Khaseem Greene suffering a serious ankle injury late in the fourth quarter. Greene, the Big East’s co-defensive player of the year who earlier this week opted not to declare early for the NFL Draft, said the injury “isn’t going to stop me from playing football.”
“I’ll be all right,” he said before marveling at the bowl victory. “This is just a special feeling to send the seniors off right. They set the foundation when they won their first bowl game. It was only right to send them off the way they started.”
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (January 3, 2012) – Junior All-America wide receiver Mohamed Sanu (South Brunswick, N.J.) has elected to forego his final year of eligibility and enter the 2012 NFL Draft. Sanu is the fourth player in the Greg Schiano era at Rutgers to leave school early and enter the NFL Draft.
The three Scarlet Knights prior to Sanu who elected to forego their final year of eligibility under Schiano’s watch have enjoyed a tremendous amount of success at the next level. Ray Rice left Rutgers following his junior season in 2007 and was a second round draft selection of the Baltimore Ravens in the 2008 NFL Draft. Kenny Britt declared for the 2009 NFL Draft and was a first round pick of the Tennessee Titans while Anthony Davis was selected with the 11th overall pick of the 2010 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers.
Sanu finishes his career as Rutgers’ and the BIG EAST’s all-time leader in career receptions with 210 after he moved past current NFL running back Brian Leonard (204) in Rutgers’ 27-13 victory over Iowa State in the 2011 New Era Pinstripe Bowl. Sanu was part of two Rutgers’ bowl victories as the Scarlet Knights own the nation’s longest current bowl winning streak at five games with Mississippi State.
The 2011 Maxwell Club Tri-State Player of the Year, Sanu ended the 2011 season with 115 receptions (school and BIG EAST record) for 1,206 yards. The 1,206 yards receiving place Sanu third in RU single-season history and eighth in BIG EAST single-season history. He is currently fourth nationally with 115 receptions and 69 of his receptions in 2011 went for first downs.
A unanimous All-BIG EAST selection in 2011, Sanu was named a Fourth Team All-America selection by Phil Steele and an honorable mention All-America pick by SI.com. Sanu won two major team awards in 2011 as he was named the team’s most valuable offensive player in addition to winning the Homer Hazel Trophy as the team’s most valuable player.
A Freshman All-America selection in 2009 by CollegeFootballNews.com, Sanu set a new BIG EAST record for receptions in a game with 16 in Rutgers’ victory over Ohio in September of this season.
NEW YORK – Dec. 20, 2011) – After a voting campaign that engaged influencers with an audience of more than 78 million Facebook users and Twitter followers, the fans have spoken. The return of Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand—one year after he was paralyzed from the neck down in a game vs. Army at Giants Stadium—is Sports Illustrated’s 2011 Moment of the Year. LeGrand will appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s year-end issue—the first time in the 57-year history of Sports Illustrated that the choice for the cover of the magazine has been made by fans. The issue is dated Dec. 26, 2011, and hits newsstands on Wednesday.
For one week, from Dec. 9–16, fans could visit a custom tab on Sports Illustrated’s Facebook page to rank the top five choices, knowing that the winning moment would appear on the Dec. 26 cover. The project produced votes from 178 countries and led more than 6,000 users to post comments on Facebook. In the end, LeGrand beat out two of the world’s most well-known soccer stars (Lionel Messi and Abby Wambach), a record-breaking surfer (Kelly Slater) and a milestone for the captain of the Yankees (Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit), among 15 iconic moments that fans could choose from. Below is a list of the top five first-place vote getters and top 10 highest-voting countries.
Candidate % 1st-Place Votes
1. Eric LeGrand’s return %29.3
2. Lionel Messi/Barcelona %19.2
3. David Freese/Cardinals %16.1
4. Kelly Slater’s 11th title %10.6
5. Abby Wambach’s goal %7.5
5 Highest-Voting Countries
1. United States
2. Canada
3. Serbia
4. Germany
5. United Kingdom
The voting results underscored how global and how social-media-based sports fandom has become. When F.C. Barcelona posted mention of its candidacy on its website and its Facebook page, votes poured in for the Champions League winners from around the world—not just from Spain but also from Syria, Kazakhstan, Peru, Latvia and Indonesia, to name a few.
Others with a direct stake in the voting results took to Twitter to galvanize their fan bases, including LeGrand, Wambach, Slater and Michigan State receiver Keith Nichol (he of the dramatic Hail Mary catch vs. Wisconsin). Like F.C. Barcelona, Jeter and Clippers forward Blake Griffin alerted fans to their candidacies on their official Facebook pages. Support for the candidates came from across the sports world (Wambach received Twitter support from many of her U.S. teammates as well as men’s national team mainstay Jozy Altidore) and beyond (musicians Eddie Vedder and Ben Harper tweeted on behalf of Slater).
During the final two days of voting, a surge of support—highlighted by tweets from two of New Jersey’s most prominent politicians, Governor Chris Christie and Newark mayor Cory Booker—nudged LeGrand over the top. Since his injury the upbeat LeGrand has used the same digital tools that helped galvanize voters to put his story on the cover to not only survive his injury but also thrive. Senior writer Alexander Wolff writes in this week’s cover story: “Voice recognition software helps him text and tweet. His wheelchair is Bluetoothed. He takes classes via Skype and updates his Facebook page regularly. Indeed, the very digital technology that helped put LeGrand’s story on this week’s cover has normalized his life as much as that’s possible. ‘He can control his Twitter, he can control his Facebook,’ says LeGrand’s mother, Karen. ‘It helps him have a sense of independence. It’s something that he can do himself without anybody’s help.’ ”
Wolff concludes: “When Eric LeGrand walks again—not if he does, as he’ll hasten to tell you—he knows exactly what he’ll do. ‘I’ll go to Giants Stadium and find the exact spot on the field where I went down,’ he told SI’s Jon Wertheim in October. ‘I’ll lie there for a second. And then I’ll get up on my own power and walk away.’ It would be quite a moment. A moment made for a reelection campaign.”
About Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is a multimedia sports brand that takes the consumer into the heart and soul of sports. The Sports Illustrated franchise is anchored by the weekly magazine—the most respected voice in sports journalism, reaching a weekly audience of nearly 22 million adults—and www.SI.com, the magazine’s 24/7 sports news website that delivers more than 300 original stories to its users each week. The franchise also includes Sports Illustrated Kids (www.sikids.com), a monthly magazine targeted to kids age 8 and up; GOLF Magazine and www.Golf.com; www.FanNation.com, a social networking and sports-news aggregation platform; SI Presents, the magazine’s specialty publishing division; as well as SI Books, SI Pictures, SI Productions, SI Digital and SI Events. Founded in 1954, Sports Illustrated is a division of Time Inc., the world’s leading magazine publishing company and a subsidiary of Time Warner.