Peon's Place

Mike Singletary made a name for himself as a coach with that bold “I want winners!” declaration more than two years ago. Ultimately, he didn’t produce enough victories to save his job.

The Hall of Fame linebacker was fired by the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night after two disappointing seasons, including a 5-10 showing this year for a franchise that expected to win the NFC West. The team made the announcement upon returning to the Bay Area late Sunday, several hours after San Francisco was eliminated from playoff contention with a 25-17 loss at St. Louis. Defensive line coach Jim Tomsula was promoted to interim coach and will run the team in the season finale at home against Arizona. He was to be formally introduced in a news conference Monday.

After team president and CEO Jed York told reporters in St. Louis after the loss he would think about whether Singletary would coach the final game, Singletary then was told of his dismissal back at the team’s Santa Clara complex. “I want to thank Mike Singletary for the passion and effort that he brought to this organization,” York said in a statement. “He is a tremendous person for whom I will always have great respect.”

Read the rest of this entry » 49ers are out, and so is …

You’ve seen the highlights. You know what happened – 28 unanswered points in the 4th quarter, with under seven-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game. The New York Giants became the first team to blow a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter and lose since, well, since they gave it up to the Tennessee Titans in 2006.

After an amazingly well kicked on-side kickoff and a nice game-ending punt return by DeSean Jackson, the Eagles take the Giants, again, and effectively take the NFC-North divison.

View the videos (2 more after the break). DeSean’s return that should have been kicked out of bounds by punter Matt Dodge, the press conference, and one of the best text-to-speech videos since the iPhone 4. Yes, the one I posted back in June.

Read the rest of this entry » Eagles toy with the Giant…

Ten years from now when you’re quizzed on useless NFL trivia, and someone asks “Who has the longest game-start streak in the NFL, and who ended that streak?”, your answers will be:

• Brett Favre, of the Minnesota Vikings 2010, 297 games
• Arthur Moats, of the Buffalo Bills December 5th 2010

Will Brett Favre ever play again? I cannot imagine so. I’d have toughed it out to make 300 and called it quits but hey, who am I kidding? I’m not taking hits like that every week, nor am I in my 40s (unless you round up from 30?).

Here’s the horribly uploaded video of Favre taking his career-ending hit from behind, and throwing up yet another interception. Good bye, old man.

Did Brett Favre cause the snowstorm in Minnesota? Was he responsible for the Metrodome roof collapsing? Was he the one that routed the airplane transporting the New York Giants football team to head to Kansas City instead of Minneapolis?

All of these are conspiracies that assist in explaining why Brett Favre needed another day of rest for his injured throwing shoulder. Is there anything that Brett Favre won’t do to keep his consecutive starts streak alive? How else do you explain a major snowstorm that swept through Minneapolis, crippling the Twin Cities on Saturday and forcing the postponement and relocation of the Vikings-Giants game to Monday night in Detroit?

How do you explain that this 30-hour delay occurs on a week where it looked like Favre’s streak was kaput because of an injury to his throwing shoulder? An injury so severe that most quarterbacks would have ruled out even the remotest possibility that they were going to go through with it?

Favre must have some kind of wacky weather machine that can produce a winter storm system so strong that it can dump 17 inches of snow on Minneapolis, so much that it caved in the roof of the Metrodome, making it unfit for an NFL game. On Saturday, the Giants were diverted to Kansas City and stranded there overnight. At Newark Airport on Saturday afternoon there was a report that at least one runway was open at Lindbergh Field at the Minneapolis Airport. But it must not have been one that the Giants’ charter could use. Or did Favre make a call?

How far does this guy’s reach stretch?

View the video of the roof collapsing!

Fresh from the Twitter wire:

@Denver_Broncos – Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen has relieved Josh McDaniels of his head coaching duties.

McDaniels is the third head coach to be fired during the 2010 NFL season. The Broncos are 3-9 and falling apart right now. The idea of the Broncos firing McDaniels has been hanging around Denver ever since the scandal with taping practices. That combined with a team missing a lot of talent spelled the end of McDaniels time in Denver.

Tim Tebow may get the Quarterback starting job next week instead of Kyle Orton. The veteran has had his best NFL season this year with the Broncos, but at 3-9 you need to start looking toward the future. Maybe they should not have traded off Jay Cutler?

Yesterday the National Hockey League replaced their ice skates with football cleats as the Houston Texans dominated over the Tennessee Titans – in every possible way. A 20-0 game with a brawl that we have not seen in a very long time, wide receiver Andre Johnson throwing a few punches to a defenseless corner back Cortland Finnegan.

Of course, Cortland while prone for the physical alteration, had certainly been asking for a beating for some time. See the video below.

The NFL fined each player $25,000 (petty change, really) and neither player will miss any game time as a result, past the ejections they both faced. Johnson apologized after the 20-0 win against the Titans on Sunday, during which both players were ejected.

On his Monday evening radio show, Finnegan apologized for the way he left the field on Sunday when he waved his arms in an attempt to stir up the crowd. Titans coach Jeff Fisher had argued against a suspension for Finnegan and said he had “very strong opinions” supporting his belief. Johnson and Finnegan will meet again when the teams play for a second time on December 19th. I can’t wait!

It’s about time. You cannot expect to stay a head coach in the NFL when you lose the respect of your star players. Perhaps Brett Favre is next to be axed??!?

The Minnesota Vikings have relieved Brad Childress of his coaching duties and promoted defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier to interim coach for the rest of the season, the team said. Frazier and Vikings owner Zygi Wilf are scheduled to hold a news conference at 4 p.m. ET at the team’s facility.

The Vikings, tabbed as a preseason Super Bowl pick, struggled to a 3-7 record amid dysfunction. Wilf had said he would stick with Childress, but the last straw was apparently the team’s humbling 31-3 loss to the archrival Green Bay Packers on Sunday. The 31-3 loss was his most-lopsided home defeat in Childress’ five years as Vikings coach, dropping his overall record to 40-37, including 1-2 in the playoffs.

Wade Phillips has finally been let go by the Dallas Cowboys today after a 4pm eastern (1pm our Pacific time) conference from previous Sunday night game failure versus the Packers. The move comes less than a year after he was given a two-year contract extension for leading the Cowboys to their first playoff win in over a decade. He will be replaced by offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.

The end for Phillips came after a 45-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night extended Dallas’ losing streak to five games as the Cowboys, which began the season with Super Bowl expectations, fell to 1-7 overall. Phillips ends his time in Dallas with a 35-23 record, having won two NFC East titles and getting the Cowboys’ first playoff victory since 1996. Phillips is 83-65 overall as a head coach. Jones, who had never fired a coach in-season since purchasing the team in 1989, had said multiple times that Phillips would finish out this season. The owner cited research showing interim coaches are not successful and that was a deterrent for him making the change.

Read the rest of this entry » Dallas with one less star…

Seven points. Four turnovers. A 38-point defeat that felt like 83. The last time the Cowboys lost a game by more was a 40-point loss to the Minnesota Vikings in a 1988 laugher quarterbacked by Steve Pelluer and coached by Tom Landry. This is officially the worst season since 1989 and with the New York Giants looming Sunday, it could get worse before it gets better. If it gets better.

Even noted Cowboys fan LeBron James has slam-dunked this season. In Twitter posts  last night he called his favorite team “officially the worst in the NFL” and called for “furniture moving.” Wonder if LeBron can play Safety?

Never thought I’d say this about my Cowboys but they are officially the worst team in the NFL right now even though the Bills are winless!

Aaron Rodgers threw 27-for-34 which is an amazingly great near 80% completion rate, adding in 3 touchdowns. He also scurried with the ball 5 times for 41 yards (over 8 yards a carry, not shabby!) including a 27-yarder. Dallas Defense, who?
My boy Greg Jennings had 7 catches for 80 yards and a score, and San Jose State’s James Jones had 8 catches for 123 yards and a score, and no fumble this time! Ryan Grant backups John Kuhn and Brandon Jackson combined for 26 carries, 92 yards and a score on the ground, as well as 6 receptions for 38 yards and another scoure, out of the backfield.
The defense amassed 4 sacks, 2 picks, and 2 fumble recoveries, including 2 scores. What a great night on primetime!

Here are two highlight videos:

• AJ Hawk to Clay Matthews interception touchdown
• Dez Bryant misreads a punt kick, causes a fumble and recovered by the Packers

The Titans felt that Randy Moss was just too good to pass up twice. After skipping Moss in the 1998 draft, Tennessee claimed him off the waiver wire yesterday, in case you have not already heard.

“Timing is everything,” coach Jeff Fisher told The Associated Press on Wednesday night. “I really think the quicker we get him on the field, the longer he’s here, the more productive he’ll be. We think that he can help us, and I’m looking forward to seeing him run under those deep balls.” The Titans didn’t seem to be the front-runner to get Moss, ranking 23rd among NFL teams in the waiver system. But Tennessee was the only team to put in a claim on the talented, but much-traveled wideout. ”Randy’s been a good teammate, and he’s very popular. I think this is a great opportunity for him. It’s a fresh start,” Fisher said.

There were three teams that I thought would have grabbed Moss first, based on waiver-order-priority in this post here. The Titans were the 4th (and last) team I assumed Moss would fall to.