Tuesday, starting left tackle for the Houston Texans, Duane Brown has been suspended by the NFL for four games due to violating the league’s policy regarding PED’s, performance-enhancing drugs.

Once Brown was aware of the four-game suspension, he had no intentions on appealing the NFL suspension as he admitted that he had consumed a banned substance – it was actually included in one of his supplements that he was taking but he was reportedly unaware that the substance was in his supplement.  He would face whatever punishment he was served and he even apologized to the team owner, the coach, the rest of his team, family and fans.

The four-game suspension is effective immediately, which means that Brown will miss this Sunday’s upcoming game again in-state rival the Dallas Cowboys.  It also means that his suspension will overlap the final two suspension games of linebacker Brian Cushing, who was suspended back in May for the first four games of the week for violating the same NFL policy.  Cushing denied the allegations of taking banned performance-enhancing drugs in May so the approach that Brown is taking by admitting to consuming the PED’s is a completely different approach but in my eyes, a better one.

This causes a major blow to the entire team.  Since being drafted in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft, Brown has started every single game.  In addition, due to going up against the Cowboys this Sunday, this suspension honestly couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Texans, who are undefeated at 2-0.  Brown will miss games against the Dallas Cowboys, the Oakland Raiders, the New York Giants and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Regardless, the Texans are going to have to train hard this week so they can pull their own weight in the game this Sunday in order to beat their in-state rival.  Reportedly, swing tackle Rashad Butler is scheduled to replace Brown during his suspension.

Detroit Lions vs Minnesota Vikings Sun. Sept. 26^th 1pm EST

The Minnesota Vikings are arguably one of the best teams in the NFL today as they have a lockdown defense led by perennial Pro Bowl defensive end Jared Allen, a solid air attack with three-time NFL MVP quarterback Brett Favre under center and arguably the best ground game in the league with superstar running back Adrian Peterson coming out of the backfield.

Even with all these things going for them this season, the Vikings have still lost the first two games of the season to the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints and the up and coming Miami Dolphins. Continue Reading…

Dallas Cowboys vs Houston Texans Sun. Sept. 26^th 1pm EST

The Houston Texans have only been playing in the NFL for about eight years now, but despite playing for less than a decade, the NFL’s newest expansion team is threatening to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history as they have played extremely well in the first two weeks of the season with wins over the Indianapolis Colts and the Washington Redskins.

In Week 3, Matt Schaub and company will be tested for a third straight week against a very good team in the Dallas Cowboys. Even though the Cowboys have failed to live up to their Super Bowl title contender status in the first two weeks of the season by losing to the Washington Redskins and the Chicago Bears in consecutive weeks, it would be hard to count them out in the NFC Conference just yet. Continue Reading…

Chris Drury, the captain of the New York Rangers, is going to be out for about four weeks due to a broken finger.  He broke his finger Monday morning during a scrimmage after trying to block a shot and is currently scheduled to miss four weeks.  The stem of his injury – from blocking a shot – is what Drury is truly known for.  He led not only his team but the entire NHL in blocked shots last season  with a total of 97 blocked shots.

While 34-year-old Drury didn’t have the most impressive season last year with the Rangers, with career lows of just 14 goals as well as 18 assists resulting in 32 points in 77 games, said that he was feeling positive about the upcoming 2010 NHL season, which is his fourth season with New York but 12th career season in the NHL and was showing positive play in camp early on.  During his 11 seasons in the NHL, he has recorded 254 goals and 610 points in 868 career games.  Drury is currently in the last year of a five-year contract with the Rangers worth just over $35 million.

As of right now, Drury isn’t required to undergo surgery; however, if Drury goes as scheduled and misses four weeks approximately, he’ll end up missing all six of the preseason games (two against New Jersey, two against Detroit and two against Ottawa).  In addition, he’ll miss the first four games of the NHL regular season including two away games against the New York Islanders and the Buffalo Sabres as well as two home games against the Colorado Avalanche and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The left wing may be able to get back into the game against the Avalanche on October 18 if his finger heals quickly enough and properly, which means he’ll only have to miss three of the regular season games.

The Carolina Panthers made a change to their starting roster today by naming rookie Jimmy Clausen as the team’s starting quarterback.  He will be the second rookie QB to start this NFL season with the first being Sam Bradford with the St. Louis Rams.

Former starting QB Matt Moore has not been performing well in the first two games of the 2010 NFL season.  He has completed barely 40% of his passes.  In both of these games, Clausen relieved Moore on the field including Week 1 when Moore suffered a concussion.

Moore was released Sunday to participate in the Week 2 game but Clausen went in for him early in the fourth quarter.  Clausen’s performance was impressive compared to Moore’s first three quarters.  Clausen performed six passes during his time on the field, which compares to Moore’s first three quarters.

Earlier this year, the Panthers released Jake Delhomme because Moore performed so well last year – or at least his performance had a lot to do with it.  He had a strong finish to the season last year but with the start of this season, I’m wondering where the quarterback from last year is.  Coach John Fox isn’t wanting to wait around and see if and when the accurate quarterback from last year may decide to show himself again so he’s making changes early, during his last season as the Panthers’ coach unless he can get his contract renewed.

Clausen will start this coming Sunday when the Panthers go up against the Cincinnati Bengals hoping to keep from a 0-3 start for the second straight time.  Clausen was drafted 48th overall out of Notre Dame after he was a potential top 10 pick.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Chase for the Championship begins today as the top 12 drivers as well as the rest of the field take their cars to New Hampshire for the Sylvania 300.

If you look at history, the winner of this year’s Championship is going to be Jimmie Johnson but if you look at this season, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch are favored.  Tony Stewart is the last driver before Johnson’s series of Championship Cup wins to have won the Cup.  While Stewart hasn’t been performing the best throughout the year, he has been picking up as of late and looking back at the past couple years, he always seems to get his momentum in the second half of the season toward the end.  This will be perfect timing for Smoke if he can maintain his momentum as he may very well be able to capture this year’s Championship. Continue Reading…

Sunday, the Atlanta Braves are looking to finish a three-game series finale against the New York Mets with a victory.  The Braves will attempt a sweep at Citi Field Sunday after losing their previous four series this year.

Bodog, online sportsbook, have the New York Mets as -110 moneyline favorites against the -110 Atlanta Braves.

The Braves will have Derek Lowe on the mound who is 13-12 with an earned run average of 4.22 overall but against the Mets this season, he is 0-2 with an earned run average of 2.95 in three starts.  All three of those games with Lowe as the starting pitcher were losses. Continue Reading…

New York Giants @ Indianapolis Colts Sun. Sept. 19^th 8:20pm EST

There is no question that as of right now four-time NFL MVP quarterback Peyton Manning is the best player at his position, but even though Peyton is near unstoppable under center, his defense wasn’t able to back up his offense in Week 1 as the Indianapolis Colts fell to the division rival Houston Texans.

Fortunately, the loss to the Houston Texans was just the first game of the season and Peyton Manning and company can easily turn things around, but they will have their work cut out for them in Week 2 as they will be going up against the one-time Super Bowl champion’s younger brother in Eli Manning and the New York Giants. Continue Reading…

New Orleans Saints @ San Francisco 49ers Mon. Sept. 20^th 8:30pm EST

The San Francisco 49ers came into the NFL regular season with high hopes of winning the NFC West division as they were looking to take advantage of both the Seattle Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals as they start the beginning an extension rebuilding process. Even though head coach Mike Singletary seemed to have all the right pieces of the puzzle in place to become NFC West champions this season, they were given a big time wakeup call in Week 1 as the Seahawks dominated the 49ers with a score of 38-6.

Obviously, this loss took a huge toll on the San Francisco 49ers as their high expectations basically went in the toilet, but they will have a chance to redeem themselves in Week 2 if they can give the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints a run for their money on their home field.

With the devastating loss in Week 1 to the division rival Seattle Seahawks, 49ers head coach Mike Singletary knew that some drastic changes had to be made if they wanted to contend with the likes of the Saints, but despite most likely making these changes, San Francisco will almost certainly struggle against Drew Brees and company. Continue Reading…

Tonight, the Texas Rangers travel to play the Seattle Mariners for a three-game series.  The Rangers currently have a 10-game lead in the American League West division over Oakland.  The Rangers haven’t seen a division title in 11 years.  They are on a seven-game winning streak and are hoping to extend their streak.  They received their seventh consecutive win Wednesday when they defeated Detroit 11-7.

Bodog online sportsbook currently has the Seattle Mariners as favorites heading into Friday night’s series opener but not by far.  This is a double negative match-up.

Ace Felix Hernandez of the Mariners currently leads the league in earned run average at 2.39 and currently ranks second with 214 strikeouts.  He is currently 11-11 this season. Against the Rangers, the ace pitcher is 0-3 with an earned run average of 6.38 in his four starts this season.  In 26 starts for his career against the Rangers, he is 8-12 with an earned run average of 4.16.  This season, the Mariners have played 13 games against the Rangers and lost 10 of them.  Six of those games were played at home at Safeco Field with five of them being defeats.

Starting pitcher for the Rangers is C.J. Wilson who is currently 14-6 with an earned run average of 3.25 this season.  After two terrible outings, he is looking to set some reinforcement.  In two starts earlier this month, he allowed seven walks and 13 hits in 8 1/3 innings.  In his last start against Seattle, he pitched for three innings and was done.  He allowed six hits, four runs as well as four walks and was slipped by without a decision since Texas won 11-6.  He has participated in three games against Seattle this season and is 1-0 with an earned run average of 3.71.

While Texas is looking for their eight consecutive win, the Mariners will be looking to escape their eighth consecutive loss.  Since it’s a double negative match-up, it’s going to be a close game; however, despite Bodog online sportsbook, I personally think with the Rangers recent success have it in the bag.