Nuggets

NFL

Two days after winning their first Super Bowl the New Orleans Saints paraded the Vince Lombardi Trophy around their home city to raucous celebration. In what was half party half mardi-gras the team were surrounded by numerous marching bands and carnival floats in an extravagant celebration. The celebrations were deemed by media sources as a fitting tribute to the Hurricane Katrina agony the city had endured.

Elsewhere, disgraced receiver Dante Stallworth was released by the Cleveland Browns but may have quickly found himself a new job as he’s expected to work out for the Detroit Lions this week…. Rumours currently doing the circuit include The New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys looking at Arizona Cardinals linebacker Karlos Dansby. Sources say the Cardinals might not offer a new deal for the well regarded linebacker…. Latest news on the up coming draft says the St Louis Rams are considering taking quarterback Sam Bradford first overall. How would this affect Tim Tebow?

While the league potentially enters another off season of ‘What will Brett Favre do?’ the Minnesota Vikings community have made their wishes clear; Brett is wanted back. Including a Facebook group that attracted over 122,000 members numerous appeals have been made to entice the greybeard back to build on this years solid campaign by the Vikings.

The Julius Peppers saga continues in Carolina. Feeling ignored by his Panthers, the former all star defensive end now says he doesn’t want a long term contract from the team and seems due to leave as a free agent this off season. Peppers said of the contract; “Last year, at the time, that was the option that I wanted most, now it’s not.” Where Peppers ends up will be one of the main stories of the off season.

UFC

Following his devastating knockout loss to Matt Serra at 109, the UFC have announced they have released veteran fighter Frank Trigg. The 37 year old Trigg, a former two time welterweight title challenger, hasn’t yet indicated whether he’ll continue his career outside of the UFC…. More surprising than Trigg’s release was the release of veteran Mark Coleman following his loss to Randy Couture in the 109 headline fight. The move comes after UFC President Dana White declared Hall of Famer Coleman’s UFC career as over following his loss. Coleman had indicated he next wanted to fight Tito Ortiz but this now looks certain not to happen barring a turn of events….. In future matchup news, it’s been announced that the winner of Wanderlei Silva vs. Britain’s Michael Bisping (in UFC 110 in Sydney later this month) will fight Yoshihiro Akiyama later in the year….. Welterweight contender Martin Kampmann has had to withdraw from his fight against Ben Saunders at UFC 111 and will be replaced by Jake Ellenberger….. Finally in the trash talk category; Thiago Alves has predicted he will knock out Jon Fitch in their rematch at UFC 111.  Alves lost the first fight to Fitch back in 2006. With the fight set for March 27 (on the George St Pierre vs. Dan Hardy card) in New Jersey there’s plenty of time for the trash talking to continue.

MLB

Coming fresh off a week where Justin Verlander signed a blockbuster deal in Detroit, no other team has followed suit in another quiet off season period………..Second baseman Skip Schumaker has signed a two-year deal to avoid an arbitration hearing with the Cardinals……..The New York Yankees have made a very shrewd deal to sign Marcus Thames to a Minor League contract.  Thames’ sneaky power and slugging abilities may suit a DH spot in the Yankees Stadium match ups.  Thames joins lefty Randy Winn who was acquired from the Giants …………San Diego have reached a one year agreement with catcher Torrealba…….Lefty reliever Mark Hendrickson is to stay in Baltimore after finalising a one-year contract……..The Cubs cannot reach an agreement with Second Baseman cum Shortstop Ryan Theriot, so will go to arbitration in the coming week………….Johnny Damon has been offered a one-year deal by the Atlanta Braves.  Rumours are rife surrounding Damon and several other teams………….Washington are pursuing pitching ace Chien-Ming Wang………….Corey Hart is to go to an arbitration hearing with the Brewers………The Red Sox have acquired right handed pitcher Gaby Hernandez off waivers from the Mariners……..and in other news, Cliff Lee of the Mariners has had an operation on his foot that will give Seattle fans palpitations weeks before the beginning of the season.

NHL

Two long streaks from Eastern teams ended this week. Ottawa had their franchise record streak broken at 10 with a 5-0 loss in Toronto while Washington saw their franchise record streak break at 14 (good for 3rd best in NHL history) despite a heroic comeback from 5-2 down against Montreal only to lose in OT. In other streaks the San Jose Sharks saw a 9 game road winning streak halted in Columbus in a disappointing 3-0 defeat. However, Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov sat out the loss and the following night extended his personal road win streak to 11, a new NHL record. Meanwhile Anaheim stretched their home winning run to 10 straight with a win over Edmonton, a result which nudged the Oilers road losing run up to 10.

The coaching change in Columbus appears to have paid immediate dividends. Interim Head Coach Claude Noel has presided over three wins out of three including back to back shutouts. Rookie goalie Steve Mason who has struggled throughout the year was in net for all three of those games and appears to have his game back.

Trade news hasn’t been as hot as last week with the trade freeze for the Olympics hitting later today (the actual deadline is March 3rd, trades open again on February 28th). However there have been a few moves, the most interesting of which was Dallas dealing prospect D Ivan Vishnevskiy and a 4th round pick to Atlanta for goalie Kari Lehtonen. This has interest at two levels. Firstly, it almost certainly signals the end of Marty Turco with the Stars who will either be dealt or not re-signed in the summer. Lehtonen is something of an enigma, when fit he has had spells of spectacular play but has struggled with injuries throughout his career and hasn’t played at all this year.

Other moves this week include San Jose improving their defensive depth by adding Nik Wallin (for a 2nd round pick) and Montreal improved their forward depth by sending a 2nd rounder to Florida for Dominic Moore who had 17 points at the time of the trade.

Brief Olympic news prior to the opening games on Monday. Canada’s Ryan Getzlaf suffered a high ankle sprain early in the week. Philadelphia’s Jeff Carter has been told to report to Vancouver but won’t be officially added to the roster yet as management give Getzlaf as long as possible to prove his fitness.

NBA

Trends continue among the elite of the NBA with Cleveland extending their winning streak to 13 games and the Lakers are getting it done against the likes of San Antonio and Utah without Kobe Bryant and his strained left ankle; New Jersey currently brandish an 8 game skid to accompany their previous 40 losses while the Timberwolves sank to the lowest percentage in the West.

Rumours are gathering momentum in suggesting that Tracy McGrady may well be shipped to the New York Knicks in a three team deal that includes the Wizards.  The deal would see Caron Butler and Brendan Heyward to Houston, and Al Harrington to the Wizards, amongst other moves.  All teams will need to be privy to such a deal, which is currently being held up by the snow along the east coast.  Fans suggest that the weather is not the only aspect that may be frosty in this deal however………

As one can imagine, with only a week to go before the trade deadline, rumours are plentiful around the league involving players such as the ‘Sixers Andre Iguodala, the Suns’ Amare Stoudamire and the Mavericks Jason Howard.  This nugget could turn in to a full blown avalanche if every rumour was noted, so we will keep you up to date with the major moves in next weeks update.

This years All-Star festivities will take place this weekend, so make sure to watch out for outrageous dunks, over celebrated plays and young and old alike breaking their necks to get on the official highlight reel.  For what it’s worth, the West should spank the East out of sight.  S H O U L D………..

More next week….