Brady starting to look comfortable again

Forget who the Patriots’ opponents were – Tom Brady has looked great the past two weeks.

For the first five weeks of the 2009 season, Brady looked an awfully lot like a player that had major reconstructive surgery a year ago. He looked uncomfortable in the pocket, wasn’t accurate and was getting flustered by how he was playing.

But in New England’s 59-0 win over Tennessee and its 35-7 rout of Tampa Bay in London, England today, Brady looks like the old Tom Brady again. He has thrown nine touchdowns in his last two games but more importantly than the numbers, he finally looks comfortable again.

Earlier this season, Brady got into a bad habit of throwing off his back foot. But against the Bucs, he showed the ability to step into his throws and while he did throw two interceptions, he played with a ton of confidence and his receivers did an excellent job picking up yardage after the catch.

The Pats head into their bye in great shape at 5-2. They have an important stretch of games after their off week, including two against the Dolphins and one against the Colts, Jets and Saints. If Brady continues to play with confidence, the Pats will be dangerous in the second half.

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Bill Simmons lists the 33 most intriguing people of the 2009-10 NBA season

On the Blazers' acquisition of Andre Miller...

21. Andre Miller
We knew Miller was a bad fit when the Blazers signed him. It just didn't feel right. He's a moody loner; they had great chemistry last season. He needs the ball in his hands; so does Brandon Roy. He likes freelancing; Nate McMillan is hands on. But Portland felt obligated to spend its extra cap money, and nobody else was pursuing Miller, so what transpired was the equivalent of two single wedding guests going through the motions on the dance floor.

I could use someone, and you could use someone. Unfortunately, I hate bald guys and I have a tiny butt; you're bald and you love bubble butts. We have no spark and are destined to fail. But crap, there's nobody better. Screw it, would you like to come back to my room?

I get Portland's thinking: It wanted to turn that cap space into an asset. And I get Miller's thinking: He wanted to get paid and hoped things would work out. But now we're here. Incredibly, Portland plans on bringing Miller off the bench. He's already miserable. (And available, by the way. Make Kevin Pritchard an offer. Seriously, call him right now.) So what did we learn? Just because you have cap space doesn't mean you HAVE to use it.

On Shaq joining the Cavs...

8. Shaquille O'Neal
Red flag No. 1: He's 835 pounds. Red flag No. 2: He has never successfully pulled off the whole "sidekick" thing; even to the bitter end, he was playing the big brother/little brother routine with Dwyane Wade. Red flag No. 3: He's splitting time with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who might be a better fit for this particular team because of his outside shooting. Red flag No. 4: He has never, ever, ever, not in his entire life, played for a coach as offensively challenged as Mike Brown. Red flag No. 5: He doesn't have the luxury of Phoenix's training staff anymore. Red flag No. 6: He's so fat that it's like looking at one of those TVs where the HD is screwed up so it makes everyone seem wider. Red flag No. 7: The Suns traded him for two guys who they immediately bought out for a combined $14 million. Red flag No. 8: The Cavs are better off if he's playing 15-20 minutes a game and that's it. Red flag No. 9: He's so fat that it's possible Delonte West was packing three guns because he got confused and thought Shaq wanted to eat him. Red flag No. 10: He's awfully close to some records, which will make it awkward if Cleveland tries to reduce his playing time.

That's 10 red flags. Ten. (To be fair, Shaq doesn't look THAT fat. He just looks a little, um, heavy. Maybe it's the uniform that makes him look doughy for some reason. I just know that, when I saw the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, I couldn't figure out why Aretha Franklin shaved her head. Then I realized it was Shaq.) And that's before we get into the whole, "Shaq seems like a great guy, but if he's a great guy, then why did he leave four teams on really bad terms" thing. Be prepared for him to do more harm than good in Cleveland. One difference: If he crosses LeBron like he crossed Nash, he'll be getting the Braylon Edwards 48-hour ticket out of town.

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Is it time for the Chiefs to dump Johnson?

Following the Chiefs’ embarrassing loss to the Chargers on Sunday, running back Larry Johnson took a couple verbal swipes at head coach Todd Haley via his Twitter page, then proceeded to use a homophobic slur to degrade another Twitter user.

Here are LJ’s tweets

• “my father got more creditentials than most of these pro coaches. … google my father!!!!!!!”

• “My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans”. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn”

Following those messages, an exchange appeared between Johnson’s account and another Twitter user, in which the other user made a reference to an incident in which Johnson pled guilty to disturbing the peace after allegedly spitting into the face of a female patron at a nightclub. A message on Johnson’s account referred to the other Twitter user’s profile picture with a homophobic slur, calling it a “[expletive] pic” and called the user a “Christopher street boy.” Christopher Street is a well-known New York City street which became famous as a symbol for the city’s gay-pride movement.

The message posted in Johnson’s account containing the homophobic slur read:

• “think bout a clever diss then that wit ur [expletive] pic. Christopher street boy. Is what us east coast cats call u.”

The final message of the night on Johnson’s account read:

• “Make me regret it. Lmao. U don’t stop my checks. Lmao. So “tweet” away.”

Johnson’s agent tried to put out the fire claiming that Johnson was just trying to pump his father up and didn’t mean to degrade Haley. But it’s pretty clear by Johnson’s tweets that he was taking a shot at his head coach.

This isn’t the first time that Johnson has gotten into a controversial situation off the field. He has had four arrests for various degrees of battery since the Chiefs drafted him in 2003, including an incident in which he spat in the face of a female at a nightclub. That incident cost him a one-game suspension.

Outside of a potential cap hit (which would be in excess of over $8 million), what’s stopping GM Scott Pioli from dumping Johnson now? LJ turns 30 in November, is averaging a career-worst 2.7 yards per carry and he continues to be a distraction. I realize he has been on his best behavior under the new regime up until this point, but this Twitter situation seems like another one of his attempts to get traded. The Chiefs are trying to move in a new direction under Haley and Pioli and they can’t do it if everyone isn’t on the same page.

If Johnson doesn’t fit into their long-term plans, then KC should cut bait and move on. Every year teams find running back gems in the draft and Pioli is one of the best player evaluators in the NFL. They could easily find a more productive running back and one that has less baggage.

Again, the cap hit would be tough for the Chiefs to swallow, but Johnson hasn’t done squat since he signed his new contract a couple years ago. The positives of cutting LJ seem to outweigh the negatives.

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