Ken Dryden: Time for the NHL to Get Head Smart (via Grantland)

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I come back to the Crosby press conference. I’m not sure how it could have been done better. The message was that we are in uncharted territory. We know some things, there is much more we don’t know, and we’re going to do what we know and respect what we don’t until we know better. This is serious, and we are serious. And we want you — all those who are watching — to experience what we have experienced and learn what we have learned, because as people who love sports, we’re in this together. It is this same tone, attitude, and approach on head injuries that Bettman and Goodell need to take. … Read More

(via Grantland)

Another winning Monday

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It’s First Monday over at the Supreme Court, and this Monday feels like a pretty good one here in ALDLAND too. Of course, half the teams that played this weekend lost, but, fortunately, the teams I was tracking were not in that half of the teams.

More on the Little Brown Jug schellacking I witnessed later. In Columbus, Michigan State gutted out (aka failed to choke away) an ugly win, and their sister Southern school, Clemson, dominated Virginia Technological Institute. Illinois had an exciting win at home against would-be in-state rival Northwestern, and Wisconsin welcomed Nebraska to the Big Ten by beating them by a lot of points while keeping them from scoring many in Camp Randall.

In baseball, the ALDS between the Yankees and Tigers got off to an awkward start due to wet Gotham weather. Detroit comes home today with a split in the Bronx and the aces back on the mound tonight. The rain suspension on Friday night means Verlander and Sabathia effectively will appear only once in this best-of-five series. It also means that A.J. Burnett probably will have to go for the Yankees, and he is not very good these days.

Back to football, the Lions overcame a 20+ point deficit on the road for the second straight week, an NFL first, handing Dallas their worst ever come-from-ahead defeat. (The twenty-four-point third-quarter deficit made it the largest road comeback in NFL history.)  Two pick-sixes and a third interception by the Detroit defense spurred Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson, and the Lions offense into action. The undefeated Lions meet the 2-2 Bears next week on Monday night.

Michigan State’s Delvon Roe quits basketball due to injury

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Rivals reports:

Delvon Roe, the rugged forward who helped Michigan State make it to a pair of Final Fours, has decided to quit the basketball team because of knee pain.

The school said Thursday that Roe, a senior fromEuclid,Ohio, will remain on scholarship and is on track to graduate in May.

The 6-foot-8 Roe says the pain in his knee has taken away his love of the game and it’s not fair to his team to try and play.

Over three years, Roe averaged only 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds, but was a stalwart in Big Ten and NCAA tournament games. He averaged 23 minutes per game in the 2010 NCAA Tournament and is second in school history with 106 blocks.

This is not good news for Tom Izzo and the Spartans, who, despite their successes, feel like they’ve been underachieving in recent years. The Spartans are fortunate to be in a position where their annual goal is an NCAA Tournament championship, but without Roe, it’s going to be very difficult to achieve that goal in 2012.

Thanks to a reader for the tip on this story.

Big Ten play starts this week, and ALDLAND takes you there

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Unlike the other BCS conferences, the Big Ten hasn’t yet begun conference play. That changes this week, though, with a slate of exciting matchups.

Number 8 Nebraska heads to Camp Randall to take on the #7 Wisconsin Badgers in the weekend’s biggest B1G (when did that start, by the way?) game. Suffice to say by the words alone, this is a Big game, making no mention of the large, corn-fed humans who will be colliding with each other throughout the contest. This is Nebraska’s first game in their new conference. Both teams have the same colors, which will make the Huskers feel welcome.

Saturday’s Big Ten schedule also includes Northwestern in Champaign and non-conference Notre Dame headed to West Lafayette to take on Purdue. That pairing leaves Indiana out in the cold, but they get to stay at home and host Penn State in a game that promises to be ugly and unwatched.

Besides Nebraska/Wisconsin, the other major conference matchup is Michigan State at Ohio State. After putting MSU on a one-week suspension last week for their zombie-like performance against Notre Dame the week before, I’m looking for them to make a statement and win a close one in Columbus that finds them ahead early and not quite choking it away late in the fourth quarter.

That leaves one game, a noon contest between 1-3 Minnesota and improbably 4-0 Michigan at the Big House in Ann Arbor to decide the rights to the Little Brown Jug. The Jug is the oldest rivalry trophy, given to the winner of the Michigan-Minnesota game since their 6-6 tie in 1903. For more on the Jug, including a short video of an old man sharing overly dramatic Jug lore in a noticeably informal setting, click here.

The point of all of this Jug business is that, just like ALDLAND took you live to the opening of the college football season (see here and here), so too will ALDLAND take you live to Ann Arbor for the opening of the Big Ten season. In addition to the game, I will attempt to decipher the particulars of the conference’s new divisions, Legends and Leaders, although I suspect that will be impossible, and I’ll be left with Mark Titus’ conclusion: call them Razzle and Dazzle and be done with it. 

Just like last time, stay tuned here, on twitter, and on flickr for updates throughout the weekend, along with a recap next week.

Why don’t the Colts pick up David Garrard?

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Rotoworld reports:

Colts not going after David Garrard –

The Colts have not contacted free agent QB David Garrard. With the inept Kerry Collins being evaluated for a concussion and Peyton Manning (neck) likely out for the season, Colts fans are clamoring for an addition. But the team might be best off going with Collins and Curtis Painter, thus entering themselves in the Suck for Luck sweepstakes. The Colts have not shown any interest in Kurt Warner or Marc Bulger either, although they are both retired anyway.

I was thinking last night that Indy should make a move for Garrard, whom Jacksonville almost certainly shouldn’t have let go. They probably will have to lose every game– something of which they’re undoubtedly capable– to get Andrew Luck, but it still is amazing to think that a team like the Colts would even be in a position where flushing a season looked like the team’s best (and possibly only) option. Keep reading…

Mike Modano Says Goodbye (via Grantland)

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Wayne Gretzky is the one who is most often labelled with the words “hockey ambassador,” but Modano was nearly as great of a statesman. The similarities to The Great One didn’t end there. Just as Gretzky’s half-tucked-in jersey would become his sartorial trademark, Modano’s loose and oversized sweater — puffed up with air as he power-turned, billowing behind him like a superhero cape or an American flag as he blazed down the ice — is one of hockey’s more enduring images. And while Gretzky remains the game’s leading scorer, Modano has more points than any other American player. … Read More

(via Grantland)

Peyton Manning is done for the year

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Pro Football Talk reports:

The Colts are 0-3, but their season is essentially over.  Peyton Manning will not be coming back to save the team.

Owner Jim Irsay announced at a breakfast meeting with Super Bowl donors Monday that Manning will miss the entire season, according to WISH-TV in Indianapolis.

Irsay may be speaking out of turn, but you can do that when you own the team.  Even if the Colts don’t make a move to injured reserve official just yet, this is a sign the Colts have no expectations Manning will return.

…

Indianapolis will surely have a high draft pick in a good year for college quarterbacks.  They may just be high enough to draft Andrew Luck first overall.

Obviously this all but ensures the accuracy of my preseason prediction that the Colts will lose every game this year. I think the Andrew Luck question is a bit less obvious. Setting aside the common, generic draft-day debate of whether a team should draft for need or always take the best player available regardless of need, would the Colts take Luck? Maybe I’m just so used to thinking of the Colts and Manning together, and also thinking that Manning was basically indestructible– not necessarily because he’s physically tough, but because he’s succeeded in avoiding a lot of damaging hits– that it’s initially hard to think of Indy taking a QB, especially when they seem to have so many other needs. If Manning’s done for good, this of course becomes a moot conversation.