J-Hill’s Two Minute Drill

Opinion, Team FYN Sports

Another week down, another week of sports to catch up on. Let’s see what’s up for discussion in this edition of the Drill:Linsanity Rocks the World – The biggest story in all of sports over the last two weeks has been the sudden emergence of New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, an undrafted player out of Harvard that had been cut by Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets before signing with the Knicks in December. Lin made his presence officially known on February 4th when he had twenty-five points, five rebounds, and seven assists in New York’s win over the Knicks, and cemented his spectacular ability on the court on February 10th, when he scored thirty-eight points with seven assists in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers, so far the best team the Knicks has beaten with Lin on the court. Lin has also had several other outstanding moments early on in his career (like his 13 assists against the Kings or his buzzer-beater against the Raptors), leading to the entire nation falling in love with the twenty-three year old who had been sleeping on his brother’s couch prior to all of this success. While watching Lin’s play has been exciting, one of the best aspects of his sudden rise in the media is all of the nicknames and puns his name has been a part of, such as the aforementioned Linsanity, All He Does in Lin, and, my personal favorite, Super Lintendo. Now on the cover of Time Magazine, the question is can Lin make this success last as the season progresses. I think that Lin has clearly proven that he has the ability to play in the NBA, and although I highly doubt that he will continue his insane Tebow-like streak of coming through in the clutch, I do believe he will continue to contribute night after night for New York alongside Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire.

Moss Makes a Comeback? – Future Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss put his name back in the news earlier this week we he announced that he intends on returning to the NFL next season. Moss, who set out the 2011 season after playing with three different teams in 2010, already has a non-NFL offer from the Indoor Football League’s Chicago Slaughter, but it is a safe assumption that Moss’s plan is NFL or bust. Although signing a thirty-five-year-old with diva characteristics is definitely a gamble, I wouldn’t call Moss’s return impossible. A team that signs a receiver like Randy Moss is one desperate for a receiver that can both provide instant reliability in the passing game while also helping the younger receivers get a feel for the game. Three teams that I predict may go after Moss are the San Francisco 49ers, the St. Louis Rams, and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Conference Realignment Revisited – The college football world shifted earlier this week for the umpteenth time when the C-USA and the Mountain West announced their plans to form a new association which at the moment is nameless. According to the new plan, the conference will be split into two divisions and will contain Air Force, Colorado State, UNLV, New Mexico and Wyoming from the Mountain West, UAB, East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, Southern Mississippi, UTEP, Tulane and Tulsa from Conference USA, and Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii, three teams that are set to join the Mountain West this year. Even though the new conference has an innovative idea about having a semifinal along with a championship game at the end of the year, I don’t see this experiment panning out well. The Big East and PAC-12 have taken all of the notable teams the C-USA and Mountain West had, leaving behind Southern Miss and Air Force to be the “big names” that the conference has to offer. Unfortunately for this new alliance, lacking name recognition may not change whenever they do acquire a new title.

Rowdy Roddy Rips Roger – Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White made some controversial comments earlier in the week regarding NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s reported $20 million salary, saying on Twitter “How in the hell can u pay a man this much money that cant run tackle or catch” and later on saying that “the players make the league”. Twenty million dollars does seem like an insane amount of money to pay a commissioner, but first compare his salary to other commissioners: MLB’s Bud Selig makes $22 million and the NBA’s David Stern makes what some have reported to be $23 million. Roddy, if you want to be mad about your boss making that much money, be mad at the whole system of sports, in which pretty much any notable person makes in the millions. If you’ve really got a problem with Goodell making that kind of money, everyone associated with the league, including yourself, would have to take a step back in the back account. However, I don’t see Roddy being willing to do that, because according to his Twitter account he “[needs his] money,” all $50 million of it. Insert joke here…

Race Day in Daytona Draws Closer – Gentlemen (and Danica Patrick), get ready to start your engines! The Daytona 500 is now just eight days away, which means that today marks the beginning of Speedweeks with the Budweiser Shootout, a 75-lap exhibition that has experienced so many rule changes over the last few years that even the biggest NASCAR fan couldn’t tell you what it takes to be eligible to race. Twenty-five drivers will run in this year’s race, which ensures that the fans will see plenty of action on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. My prediction is that the Shootout will have a first-time winner this year, as Carl Edwards makes the statement that he will be a contender for the championship once again by being the first Sprint Cup Series driver to hit Victory Lane at Daytona this year.

Sports Quote of the Week

“He hits like a flea so I will take him in three. He wants to go to heaven so I will drop him in seven. He thinks he’s great so I will get him in eight.” – Muhammad Ali on an upcoming fight with Sonny Liston

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