ing," Ujiri said. "Starting today. Hes a basketball j

Nick Saban, head coach of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide said in a recent interview "success is not a continuum". Deion Sanders Super Bowl Jersey . So true. It is one thing to create a winning football team, and another to keep it winning. Each and every week it changes. The NFL creates a unique interest of not who is "the best", but much more who is "the best this week". I cant believe the Dallas Cowboys gave up 40 first downs and 625 yards of offence to the Saints. I didnt think they would win and logic says the Saints would move the ball. But 40 first downs? At first I didnt believe what I thought I was hearing and when I saw it in print I figured it was a misprint. But it is the truth - 40 first downs allowed which is 10 per quarter. Are there reasons for what has to be classified as a major breakdown? Yes and they are genuine. Just like last year the Cowboys cant stay healthy. Of the 12 starters that were to be every-play players, only four now remain. On offence your absolute key component is the quarterback and on defence if you lose one particular player, its not as easy to define as it affects everything. When Dallas lost Sean Lee at the middle linebacker position they fell apart. It truly shows the value of Lee in that you dont know what you have until its gone. I honestly believe that in modern football it is not the best team that wins as much as its the team that can stay the healthiest the longest or get healthy at the right time that wins. When Dallas started the season their defensive line was DeMarcus Ware, Jay Ratliff, Jason Hatcher and Anthony Spencer. All that remains is Ware who is not 100 per cent. With 6 games left Dallas has a winnable schedule but confidence through this bye week must be low. 40 first downs, an NFL record is an amazing accomplishment for the Saints and an amazing concern for the Dallas Cowboys. On Incognito So Richie Incognito spoke and I dont buy it and wish it would go away. I was fortunate to play five years of Division I football against excellent competition. 12 years of pro football in both leagues and Im finishing my 15th year following football as closely as I can for TSN. I have never heard any player say what Incognito said to Martin in a private message. I have heard plenty of moments involving threats, race and every possible subject. But they were in the heat of the game or more often practice and they were very short bursts and completely within the reality of the intensity of the game. I dont buy it. I do feel, as many others so, that the analogy of this was a domestic situation gone public but for those who may think this is the norm, it is not. The locker room can be a rough place but it also is an intelligent place. Both extremes can exist at any given moment. Jonathan Martin should not have left the Dolphins and I sense he has had enough of football and thats okay. But the source is Incognito, and the reality is his values and personality are abrasive. That is putting it mildly. Roaring Lions In Detroit the Lions are in control of the NFC North. Green Bay has to wait for Aaron Rodgers, Chicago has lost twice to Detroit this season already and the Vikings are re-building. And there is a discussion that Calvin Johnson should be the NFL MVP in 2013. I have no problem with that. Sometimes in football its very easy to define why you win or lose. On offence if you can keep both safeties off the line of scrimmage because you have a receiver so good that you must play deep coverage you are going to move the ball with a good or even average running back. Detroit has that with Johnson and now Reggie Bush. Many talk about the physical gifts of Calvin Johnson, but theres not enough talk about the fact he is a very good receiver. Pattern runner. Catches everything. Blocks effectively. His value to Detroit is that he influences even the best NFL defences which does make him a viable MVP candidate. More Than Their Record I was watching the Monday Night Football game and thinking that that was a pretty good 1-8 Tampa Bay Buccaneer team. I often talk about opportunity in football. Recognizing it is Step 1 and taking advantage of it is Step 2. Often it is about players that dont but when it comes to Bucs quarterback Mike Glennon, you know that he is. Jon Gruden had the perfect comparison when he connected him to Joe Flacco but Glennon at this point may have a better arc. His throws are, well, pretty. They look good. Fast, hard, accurate and parallel to the ground when needed. Glennon is going to put on a bit more weight, continue to lead and establish himself this year as the present and the future of the Bucs. Carl Nicks is one of the best guards in football. When he played beside Donald Penn the Bucs had the best left side in football but now Penn is injured and you cant see it happen. I know many have said fire head coach Greg Schiano and it is an easy argument. But now I say wait and play the season out. Heart of the Eagles In Philadelphia the future is Nick Foles. Sixteen touchdown passes and one interception for a quarterback in his second year is not luck. It is understanding offences and directing everyone. Understanding defences and reacting correctly to all of them. Philadelphia has exceptional speed and this is without Jeremy Maclin so with that speed you must have a good deep ball thrower with time. Foles is an excellent deep ball thrower and left tackle Jason Peters and No. 1 pick Lane Johnson will provide the time. The NFC is a wide open division. Both the Redskins and Giants at 3-6 have to win all seven of their remaining games to get to 10. The Cowboys and Eagles are 5-5 and need to win five of six to get to 10. The NFC East easily could be represented by an 8-8 team or may I say a team with a losing record. All that aside, the Philadelphia Eagles have the inside lane in the race for the NFC East crown. The Real Deal And finally the Carolina Panthers are for real. There are two key games in their future. The first is Dec. 8 at New Orleans and the other is Dec. 22 when they host New Orleans. The unknown was after four wins over weaker teams like Minnesota, Tampa Bay, St. Louis and Atlanta, how would they play in San Francisco with the 49ers coming off the bye? A 10-9 road victory over Colin Kaepernick and company proves that Carolina is indeed for real. Nick Bosa Super Bowl Jersey . "That was a great lift for the staff," Padres manager Bud Black said. Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal homered, and Chase Headley drove in three runs, as the Padres beat the Chicago Cubs 11-1 on Friday night. Fred Warner Super Bowl Jersey .com) - Houston Texans interim head coach Wade Phillips confirmed Monday that starting quarterback Case Keenum sustained a sprained right thumb during Sundays 25-3 loss in Indianapolis. http://www.authenticsf49erspro.com/Adrian-colbert-49ers-jersey/ . He just didnt expect them to be this good. Darrun Hilliard scored 19 points to lead No. 6 Villanova to a dominating 77-59 victory over Georgetown on Saturday, preserving the Wildcats hopes of a No.TORONTO - Bruno Caboclo, the Raptors 20th overall selection in Thursdays NBA Draft, arrived in Toronto Friday evening. A wide-eyed 18-year-old visiting North America for only the second time in his young life, Caboclo immediately noticed the "big tower" his new home is best known for. Then he got to work. Caboclo, described by those who know him as a "gym rat," was amazed to find out that hell have access to the Raptors practice facility at any time, day or night, just one of the many perks that comes with being drafted into the NBA. At 11:00 PM, the Brazilian forward was taking jump shots on his new teams practice court, on the third level of the Air Canada Centre. "I need to get a feeling for the gym and I need to get the rust off," he told Eduardo Resende, his long-time friend, translator and closest advisor. A couple hours later he was in bed. It had been a long day. About 24-hours earlier, on the night of the draft, Caboclo and Resende were in the backseat of a cab, en route from the airport to their hotel in New York City and following along with the picks on Twitter. They expected to be in their rooms by the time the commissioner called Caboclos name, sometime in the second round, or so they thought. Thats when they got the news. Refreshing the app on his phone, Caboclo learned he had been drafted, that his dream had come true. If you thought you were surprised by the pick… "The taxi driver didnt understand what went on," Resende joked. "We were screaming back there. It was crazy." "He was jumping out of the roof. He was very excited. Its a dream come true. For a young Brazilian player that could only see those things on TV and then all of sudden hes a part of it." Caboclo tried to call his family back in Brazil but no one answered, they were asleep. He fielded calls for hours and finally heard from Masai Ujiri, the man who had just shocked the basketball world by making the pick, at 2:00 AM as the two were ordering some late-night food at a New York pizzeria. At 4:00 AM they were finally able to get some sleep. Thursday night was an emotional one for all 60 prospects fortunate enough to have their name called - dreams realized, lives changed - but for Caboclo the feeling was a little different. It had to be. A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Caboclo - the youngest of three siblings - grew up in a rough environment. "He comes from a difficult family financially," Resende said. "He supports his family." Without cable in his house Caboclo was unable to watch NBA basketball until recently, but hes been playing the game since he was 13-years-old, dunking since he was 14. When did he know he wanted to play in the NBA? "Always," he said, after Resende relayed the question in his native Portuguese. The Raptors were intrigued since the moment they saw the 6-foot-9 Brazilian. With a couple of Torontos scouts watching, Caboclo won the most valuable player award at the 2013 Basketball Without Borders Americas. At the request of his staff, Ujiri went to go see the young man play in Brazil. He would later make two more trips, bringing with him Jeff Weltman, Toronto executive VP of basketball operations, and other members of the organization. They werent the only team wise to Caboclo, though they were one of a small handful. No more than five teams knew about him, according to a club source. "Youre going to get some scouts fired for this," one Raptors staff member told a team scout, jokingly, while watching Caboclo in amazement. If he realizes his potential in the NBA, despite flying under most of the leagues radar, it could change the way many teams approach their scouting process. Ujiri and company kept a low profile on these trips, for obvious reasons. Evven Caboclo had no idea he was being watched, playing sparingly for Pinheiros in Sao Paulo at the time. Mitch Wishnowsky Super Bowl Jersey. Ujiri happened to be in attendance when one of Caboclos teammates got hurt, creating more playing time for the young forward. He brought back some film of that game to review with his staff… on his cell phone. Even with limited live action data to work with, Ujiri quickly fell in love with Caboclos upside. As he worked out in Toronto just before being introduced to the local media for the first time Saturday morning, it wasnt hard to see why. With a 7-foot-6 wingspan, he barely has to leave his feet to extend above the rim. Hes wiry, can handle the ball and his shooting mechanics are "excellent", according to a front office source who has seen him play. At one point during the workout, Caboclo was asked to dribble past a coach and dunk the ball. Instead, he passed that coach the ball. His English, like the rest of his game, is a work in progress but hes absorbing everything like a sponge. "Soon he wont need me here anymore," joked Resende, who has known Caboclo since he was a kid, working with him for the last two years. "His improvements have come very fast," he continued. "He is nowhere near the Bruno who was MVP at Basketball Without Borders. He is way past that." "Hes a little shy until he gets used to whats going on, and then hes very open," Ujiri echoed. "Hes a gym rat, and hes competitive. If he doesnt do a drill well, he will want to finish it. Thats him. Hes a great kid. Loves basketball. He wants to be in the gym every second, which is what you want in an 18-year-old." "Its a gamble," Ujiri acknowledged. Although Caboclo has the tools to succeed in the NBA, it will take time. Listed at 205 pounds, the young man will need to add muscle and get comfortable with the language on top of the work hell need to put in to grow his game in the league. As for the negative reaction to his unexpected pick, Ujiri doesnt care. "Honestly, I dont do it for reactions of anybody," said the Raptors general manager. He may well be "two years away from being two years away", as Fran Fraschilla so eloquently put it on the ESPN broadcast, he may be "five years away from being five years away", as Ujiri joked on Saturday, but the Raptors feel strongly about their pick and will patiently ride it out for as long as it takes. Caboclos drive, passion and work ethic should justify that patience. "He is very aware that hes coming to a league thats pretty tough and hes only 18 so theyre probably right about two years from being two years or whatever," Resende said on behalf of Caboclo. "But he said hes a hard worker and hes going to cut that [timeline] down and contribute before everybody [thinks]" The work begins immediately. Caboclo will travel to Los Angeles on Sunday to meet and workout with some of the teams players and coaches. The Raptors plan to get him on a weight training program right away, while he puts in time with an English tutor, something the team did with Jonas Valanciunas after he came over from Lithuania. He wont play for Brazil this year - though he hopes to represent his country in the 2016 Rio Olympics - as he has committed fully to the Raptors. Hell participate in the teams Summer League entry in Las Vegas next month and then prepare for his rookie season. Ujiri anticipates Caboclo will spend at least a portion of his first year bouncing up and down from the Development League (Note: the Raptors have yet to announce their D-League affiliate for next season). "Hes going to start learning," Ujiri said. "Starting today. Hes a basketball junkie. Those guys usually figure out a way." ' ' '