FOX NFL SUNDAY NOTES – 10/27/13
Bradshaw: The NFL Should Have a Team in Los Angeles
Glazer Reports on Peyton Manning’s Ankle Injury
Johnson: Giants Need to Hold On To Nicks
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Co-Host and Analyst Terry Bradshaw said he wishes the NFL would focus on bringing a team to Los Angeles, rather than on playing games internationally: “This is the eighth game the NFL has played in London, spreading the international brand. And for the life of me, I don’t understand why we’re not spreading a little love out here to Los Angeles. Do you realize it has been 19 years since we last had a team here in the Los Angeles area? Why the NFL isn’t putting all their efforts into bringing a team out here – and don’t forget, the largest game in the history of the Super Bowl was in Los Angeles. The very first Super Bowl was in Los Angeles, and personally, my last Super Bowl was in Los Angeles. It seems to me like the powers ought to get together and give a little thought to bringing in an NFL team. Howie’s Raiders’ economic struggles up in Oakland, the Rams’ stadium issues in St. Louis – viable alternatives to come back to the second-biggest city in this great country of ours, the United States.
Analyst Howie Long added: “Personally, I’m hopeful they stay in Oakland, but economically it’s tough.”
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NFL Insider Jay Glazer shed light on the ankle injury that kept Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning out of practice one day this week: “He didn’t hurt it in the game against the Colts, he actually hurt it originally against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and if you guessed right ankle or left ankle, you’d be correct on both instances. He actually injured both those ankles. This week they wisely gave him a day off, and it was huge news. They want to make sure the ankles were healed up. And he’s much better today for our FOX game than he was a week ago.”
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Glazer gave his take on this week’s trade deadline: “The biggest name on that list right now is Jared Allen, the Pro Bowl defensive end for the Minnesota Vikings. He is a free agent after the year, likely gone. If he leaves, they’ll get about a third-round compensatory pick for him. If I’m a team out there looking for a d-end, you call the Minnesota Vikings and you can get a guy like Jared Allen.”
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Analyst Jimmy Johnson weighed in on action around the trade deadline, and said that the New York Giants should look to keep Hakeem Nicks:
“In the past, Hakeem Nicks has proven he’s a talented young game-breaker for Eli Manning, and you don’t give up players that win games. Get his contract done. Keep him.”
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Analyst Michael Strahan said they key for the Giants to win today against Philadelphia is to pressure Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, who is still recovering from a hamstring injury: “If you’re the Giants, you know he’s not healthy. I would pressure Michael Vick. Make him run. Do everything you can to make him feel uncomfortable, and then hopefully you get a young Matt Barkley in the game. That’s going to be a key to the Giants, but you have to watch out because the safety valve for the Eagles is McCoy, who’s the leading rusher in the NFL.”
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Johnson looked back at Thursday night’s game between the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and said Tampa Bay would have a winning record if Cam Newton was the team’s quarterback: “This was a perfect example of why this is a quarterback-driven league. You look at Carolina – the first winning record under Cam Newton, and it’s all because Cam Newton’s playing team football, he’s utilizing a strong defense, he’s converting on third down, he’s scoring touchdowns. On the other side, you look at Tampa’s roster – they’ve got a lot of talented players, but they’re struggling. Greg Schiano’s going to take a lot of the blame, and deservedly so, but if Cam Newton was playing for Tampa Bay, they’d have a winning record, and they wouldn’t be 0-7.”
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Long weighed in on Mike Shanahan’s return to Denver as the head coach of the Washington Redskins and said Broncos fans should give Shanahan a standing ovation: “Mike Shanahan deserves a standing ovation up in Denver. You’re talking about a guy who won back-to-back championships for a team and a city that had been to the Super Bowl three times and had nothing but despair. He’s not only going back to face the team that he coached in two Super Bowls, but a team that has been built by the quarterback who led him to those two Super Bowl victories.”
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Strahan said Reggie Wayne’s season-ending ACL tear hurts Indianapolis not only from a game standpoint, but also because the team loses an important veteran presence: “That’s a big loss for their team, because not only was he their leading receiver last year, Reggie Wayne was their leading receiver so far this year. He’s a veteran who’s been there, the guy that can guide Andrew Luck. So, it’s not only important on the field to have Reggie Wayne, it’s important to have Reggie Wayne off the field, to keep the young guys in line and keep them on the right path, and they lose that. They need a guy like [Darrius] Heyward-Bey – who just came in who Reggie Wayne was mentoring – you need guys like that to step up.
“It’s going to be very tough for him to come back. At his age, that position, he can come back, he can play, but I don’t know if he will ever be as effective as he was before the injury.”
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