Josh Alper Posts

On the eve of a Sunday night NFC East showdown in Philadelphia, the Cowboys have gotten some bulletin board material via a comparison of their franchise and the Eagles. Strangely enough, the inflammatory statements weren't made by anyone with current ties to the Eagles, but by Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.

Harbaugh, a former Eagles assistant, was asked for a new book what made the Eagles more successful than the Cowboys over the last 10 years. Matt Mosley of ESPN.com shares the answer.

Someone has probably said before that you can't tell anything about the NFL playoff picture until the baseball season comes to a close. If they haven't, I just did and humbly submit that it should be the new credo of football watchers everywhere. The World Series will end before Week 9 kicks off, and it is a week suitably stuffed with games that will actually allow us to do more than guess about the fortunes of the NFL's 32 teams.

Blood will be spilled, hopes will be dashed and these power rankings will look radically different when this week's slate of games are completed. It's finally time to start seperating the men from the boys.

Excited for the fifth game of the World Series on Monday night? Sorry to burst your bubble, but the cat is already out of the bag. The Phillies win. They win Game 6 on Wednesday night, too. And in an epic battle of baseball goodness that your grandchildren will tire of hearing you talk about, they win Game 7 and repeat as world champions.

I'm not making predictions here, people, this is all true. Why else would the Philadelphia Inquirer be running ads, via PhillyTalk.com, advertising a sale on T-shirts and other memorabilia celebrating the momentous occasion hours after Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez teamed up to beat Brad Lidge and give the Yankees a 3-1 lead in the World Series?

You can look at Cliff Lee's pitching line from Wednesday night's Game 1 win against the Yankees and know that he pitched well. During the game, though, you didn't need to do anything more than catch a closeup of Lee's face to know that he was in a serious groove. All game he wore the look of the guy who knew that he had his best stuff working and that he wasn't afraid who knew it.

If the look on the face or the darts he was throwing didn't convince you, there was always this play:

Look past the undefeated teams at the top of the Week 8 NFL Power Rankings, and you'll see a pair of familiar faces staring back at you in the fourth and fifth spots. Mike Tomlin and Bill Belichick have navigated some choppy early season waters and righted two of the AFC's stalwart ships in time to ensure that there won't be any dramatic changing of the guard in that conference this season. In both cases, it's been about getting back to basics.

The Steelers defense quieted its critics with a shutdown performance against the Vikings on Sunday, while the Patriots offense has looked like the 2007 version while ringing up blowout victories on both sides of the Atlantic. They're still looking up at the Colts and Broncos, of course, but if those are the top four when we get to January it should be a pretty spectacular fight for the AFC Championship.

It looks like we can call off the Jim Zorn Deathwatch. For the next couple of days anyway.

Redskins executive vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato said on his ESPN980 radio show Friday morning that Zorn won't be fired before the 2009 season reaches its conclusion.

"Let me start by making a few things very perfectly clear: Jim Zorn is the head coach of the Washington Redskins, and will be for the rest of this season, and hopefully into the future."

Cerrato's hardly an impartial party to this decision. When and if Zorn gets fired and when and if Daniel Snyder brings in the big-name coach everyone expects he'll bring in as a replacement, Cerrato will be the next head on the chopping block.

Al Davis has gotten a pretty bad rap when it comes to personnel acumen over the last few years thanks to ill-advised trades and free agent signings. The video below may change your mind about the Raiders owner, however.

Many players have been described as being so fast that they fly downfield, none of them have literally done it. Until now, that is.

The Saints are a clear choice for the top spot after the beating they put on the Giants Sunday, but things are a bit murkier thereafter. How good are the Vikings if their defense can't put teams away? Was that the worst of the Giants, or just the tip of the iceberg for a team that didn't play anyone all that good for the first five weeks? How did everyone in the country not named Josh McDaniels miss so badly on a Broncos team that looks better and better every week?

The clarity isn't helped much by an increasingly muddy midsection in each league. You've got teams like the Jets and Eagles making a mockery of their supporters and teams like the Jaguars and Cardinals offering reminders that a bad week or two early doesn't mean that all is lost. We're coming up fast on midseason and, as it should be, there are more questions than answers in the NFL.

The suddenly reeling New York Jets are going to have to try and get back on track without their immense nose tackle Kris Jenkins. Jenkins tore the ACL in his left knee during the Jets' dispiriting 16-13 overtime loss to the Bills on Sunday and he was placed on injured reserve Monday afternoon which ends his 2009 season.

"It comes with the game," Jenkins said. "My feelings are hurt that I won't be able to be out there fighting with my teammates."

His teammates might be finding it a lot harder to win their future fights without Jenkins occupying the middle of the line. They'll have to figure something out, though, because there's not much chance of swinging a deal before Tuesday's trade deadline.

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Thanks to an Anti-Semitic comment, longtime Yankee Stadium playoff fixture Ronan Tynan will not be in attendance when the Yankees and Angels kick off the American League Championship Series on Friday night.

Tynan, well-known for his addition of obscure extra lyrics to "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch, got into hot water after a run-in with a real estate broker trying to sell an apartment in his New York City building. Here are the particulars, as reported by NBC New York.

The real estate agent said to the tenor, famous for his association with Yankees, "Don't worry they are not Red Sox fans," according to the apartment-hunter, Dr. Gabrielle Gold-von Simson.

To which Tynan replied, "I don't care about that, as long as they are not Jewish," Gabrielle Gold-von Simson told NBC New York. "Why is that?" asked a flabbergasted Gold-von Simson of the singer.

And Tynan responded that Jewish ladies had been looking at the apartment before and they were "scary," according to Gold-von Simson.