The Denver Broncos made an announcement Monday that they have signed free agent running back Bruce Hall, who put on NFL jersey as a Buffalo Bills rookie in 2008 and spent most of the past two seasons with the Bills’ practice squad.
Hall was signed to the Bills’ active roster and dressed but did not play in Buffalo’s 2008 season finale against the New England Patriots. The 24-year-old running back used to play as a running back and quarterback in college at the University of Mississippi, where he totaled 416 yards and a touchdown on 85 carries along with 15 catches for 149 yards and one score in 23 games over two seasons. Before the University of Mississippi, he spent time at Northeast Community College (2005), Troy University (2004) and Wake Forest (2003).
Hall also earned the Offensive Backs Most Valuable Player Award after passing for 1,003 yards and 10 touchdowns while rushing for nearly 300 yards for the Northeast Community College team. While playing for the Troy University, he worked on scout team but had to sit out due to the NCAA transfer rule in 2004.
The Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga will go to the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. later this month to check into rehab for his drunken driving. Before that he is on a previously trip to Samoa.
The rookie linebacker from USC was arrested on Jan. 29 in Covington, Ky., after police said he hit a parking meter and two parked cars. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty and received a suspended seven-day jail sentence, two years’ probation and had his driver’s license suspended for 90 days. He was fined $884 plus court costs and will have to make restitution for damages from the accident.
After the sentence, Maualuga began to consider checking into rehab and is expected to enter the facility once he returns from the trip. He really needs that. Even before he put on NFL jerseys to become a pro football player, he had encountered problems with alcohol. Maualuga was arrested for misdemeanor battery in an alcohol-related incident that happened during his freshman year at USC in2005.
The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco always likes saying surprising but fresh things that causes hot discussion. This time he tries by scheduling a future for a wide receiver as boisterous as himself.
During an interview with NFL Network’s Rich Eisen and Warren Sapp on Thursday, Ochocinco said that he would like to team with Terrell Owens in Bengals and he would take a pay cut if that could make it happen. Later in the day, Owens heard about it and said the league would not allow that to happen as the combination would make the team too dynamic.
Owens did not rule out the possibility of teaming with Ochocinco completely but said that he would like to be a Bill under the right circumstances. He is still under contract with the Buffalo Bills, but he will be a free agent this offseason. In his first season playing in Bills jersey, Owens finished with 55 receptions for 829 yards and five touchdowns, some of his lowest numbers since an injury-plagued 2005 season.
If the Bills decide not to re-sign him, Owens could really think about Ochocinco’s suggestion seriously.
The Indianapolis Colts star defensive end Dwight Freeney is now enjoying his time in South Florida, which is the perfect locale for a Super Bowl and a sore ankle. And Freeney said his ankle had been feeling much better since arriving in Miami.
Freeney has been walking around barefoot and along the sandy beach outside the team’s hotel to strengthen his sprained right ankle. And he believes that such kind of walking will help heal the injury so that he would be able to put on his Colts jersey to play Sunday’s Super Bowl game against the New Orleans Saints.
“Sometimes walking is good because it keeps things fluid,” Freeney said Wednesday. “You hear people say he should be in a boot or something. But sometimes it can get stiff, and you’ve got to get that motion back in the ankle. It gets the blood flowing, so I’ve been walking around barefoot and in the sand.”
Although he is still questionable for the game because of the torn ligament in the ankle and the Colts have been ready to play the game without him, Freeney remains hopeful that he could be present for the game. He has tried ice, oxygen chambers and chiropractors to get healthy enough to play, to remain being the league’s top pass rushers by helping his team win the Super Bowl championship.
Now Allen Iverson is assured that he will earn what the Philadelphia 76ers promised to him when persuading him to wear back the team’s NBA jersey, as the 76ers guaranteed the remainder of his prorated one-year contract worth $1.3 million on Tuesday.
The team could have waited until Wednesday the final day, but they thought Iverson had done well enough to be given the promised pay.
“Since his arrival, Allen has done everything asked of him and has been an excellent teammate,” 76ers general manager Ed Stefanski said in a statement before the team faced the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night. The game ended with Wizards’ 104-97 victory over the 76ers.
Signing with the 76ers as a free agent on Dec. 3, the 34-year-old helped the Philadelphia team to 4-5 as a starter. But he also sat out four games because of arthritis in his left knee.
Offensive tackle Nick Hennessey will put on Buffalo Bills jersey officially to play this Sunday’s season finale against the Indianapolis Colts, while rookie linebacker Nic Harris was placed on the injured reserve because of knee injury.
Harris becomes the 19th Bills player placed on the season-ending list after he sustained a knee injury while playing against the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday. His injury depletes a banged-up linebacking corps down to five healthy players.
Safety/linebacker Bryan Scott suffered a head injury and has been ruled out of the Sunday’s game. Harris’ being put on IR cleared the room for signing Hennessey, who may share some starting job as starting tackle Jonathan Scott was ruled out because of an ankle injury. Another injured starter, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is expected to play after missing last week’s game because of ankle injury.
The one who gave instructions to those playing on court in the Los Angeles Clippers jerseys on Thursday night was not the team’s coach Mike Dunleavy, but assistant Tony Brown. Fortunately, the team still managed to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 104-88 with coach’s absence.
Dunleavy is in his seventh season as Clippers coach and his second in the dual role of general manager. He has the third-longest tenure among current NBA coaches behind Utah Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan and San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich.
And missing game is seldom to Dunleavy. The last time Dunleavy missed a game was Nov. 27, 2008, when he was in Dallas for the funeral of his father-in-law. It was Kim Hughes who ran the team in his place.
Wednesday night 104-95 victory over the New York Knicks was significant to the New Jersey Nets. Having lost 10 straight games, the Nets finally ended its second double-digit losing streak of the season.
With all five starters wearing their NBA jerseys on court, the Nets had a lot of comfort. Brook Lopez had 21 points and 14 rebounds, Yi Jianlian contributed 22 points, Chris Douglas-Roberts had 17 points, Courtney Lee had 10 and Devin Harris added 17 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.
It is not easy have all the five play together on the court really. While Lopez is the Nets’ only starter to play in all 32 games, Lee has played in 25 games, and Yi played only eight because of a knee injury and a cut lip. So it was no wonder the Nets could set an NBA record by opening the season with 18 straight losses.
Weapons were probed inside a locker room at the Verizon Center, where the Washington Wizards play their home games. Although Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump did not mention anyone’s name or team in statement, Wizards acknowledged that guard Gilbert Arenas stored unloaded firearms in a container in his locker at the arena, and Arenas himself also acknowledged he was being investigated after the Wizards’ 110-98 loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday night.
The Wizards said the NBA was looking into the situation, and Arenas did not tell who was investigating him, so people may have to find it out by themselves whether it was the NBA or the police who is dealing with the case or they are looking into the same case.
We may judge from Crump’s statement which said: “Members of the Metropolitan Police Department are currently assisting the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia with an investigation into an allegation that weapons were located inside a locker room at the Verizon Center.” Arenas, who is in his ninth year of wearing NBA jersey, may be just the guy who owns the weapon mentioned in the statement.
According to The Associated Press, Tracy McGrady’s representatives asked the Houston Rockets to trade him. Although there has not yet any official comment on the report, it just seemed likely the seven-time All-Star will take off his Rockets jersey after spending 5 seasons with the team.
The 30-year-old McGrady promised to team with Yao Ming and return the Rockets to prominence when he arrived in June 2004. But his five-season tenure was marked more by injuries than team success. He averaged 25.7 points and 5.5 assists in his first season, but the Rockets lost to Dallas in the first round of the playoffs. He missed 34 games in 2005-06 with back injuries and that lingered into the following season. Hurting elbow and knee in the 2007-2008 season, he missed another 16 games and was in and out of the lineup last season and finally opted for the risky, season-ending surgery around the All-Star break, but the Rockets won their first playoff series since 1997.
For this season, he played only in six games since returning from an offseason microfracture surgery on his left knee, and Rockets Coach Rick Adelman had limited him to only 7-8 minutes since McGrady’s debut on Dec. 15. With no more playing time and current contract to expire after this season, McGrady is just very likely to find a new team for better chance.
