Bleacher Report - Articles by Fahad Zaidi

NFL Introduces New Rules to Maintain Parity During the 2009/10 Season (Satire)

Fahad Zaidi — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:45:28 -0400

The first week of the '08/'09 NFL season left many patriot fans gasping for air when Bernard Pollard struck the beloved golden boy of the Patriots, Tom Brady, and ending his season right then and there

Although this angered and hurt many Patriot hopefuls, it gave other teams in the AFC East a chance to win the division now that Brady wasn’t there to lead the Patriots to another Division title.

With the 2009/10 season just around the corner, the NFL has decided to introduce a new set of new rules in order to keep the Patriots offensive threshold in check and helping other inferior teams like the Jets, Bills, Dolphins, and…did I mention the Jets already?

Here are the rules that the NFL wants enforced during the 09/10 season:

Rule No. 1: For every yard the Patriots gain, they will lose half a yard.

Rule No. 2: The Patriots must dress at least three punters for all games, otherwise they will be fined.

Rule No. 3: The Patriots must go a two-point conversion every time they score. If the attempt fails, they will not get any points and the opposing team will get the ball on the Patriots' two yard line.

Rule No. 4: Tom Brady must announce to the other team the play they are about to run and not call any audible.

Rule No. 5: The Patriots may not ever be down by less than a touchdown with two minutes left in the game. Brady having the ball with two minutes to go just isn’t fair to the opposing team

Rule No. 6: In order to win, the Patriots must score at least three more touchdowns than their opponent. If it’s a divisional game, they must score five more touchdowns than their opponent.

Rule No. 7: Randy Moss must play every game with one hand tied behind his back (probably won't make a difference).

Rule No. 8: Bill Belichick must not deface any NFL apparel (i.e. cut the sleeves off hoodies). This will result in a five game suspension and a hefty fine.

And last but not least,

Rule No. 9: Tom Brady may not date (or marry) anyone better looking than the opposing team’s head coach’s wife.

New England Patriots to Place Franchise Tag on Matt Cassel

Fahad Zaidi — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:59:11 -0500

According to former NFL executive Michael Lombardi, who worked with Bill Belichick in Cleveland, the New England Patriots are going to place the franchise tag on Matt Cassel.

This means the Patriots will have to sign him to at least a one-year contract worth the average of the five highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL right now.

The average appears to be between $14.4 million, which is almost $200,000 less than that of Tom Brady's 2009 salary cap figure.

By signing Cassel, the Patriots will have somewhat of a fallback if Brady is not ready to go at the start of the 2009 season.

However, if Brady is 100 percent healthy and able to play, it will make Cassel one of the highest paid backup quarterbacks in NFL history.

On the other hand, the Patriots may franchise Matt Cassel in order to get significant compensation by trading him to another team, or they may work out a short-term deal in order to keep him around until Brady is 100 percent healthy.

Matt Cassel played in all 16 games for the Patriots, throwing for nearly 3700 yards, 21 TDs and leading them to and 11-5 record in the regular season.

J.T. O'Sullivan Is the Front-Runner As the San Francisco 49ers Starting QB

Fahad Zaidi — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:48:51 -0400

Since the first preseason game, J.T. O'Sullivan has taken all of the reps with the first-team offense. Alex Smith has been the No. 2, and Shaun Hill has only seen action during individual periods.

In the postgame press conference, Nolan told the media that, "Without question, the game in not big for J.T. O'Sullivan. He’s a competitor. A few times he tried to do too much from a tough situation rather than take what the defense is giving him."

O'Sullivan says his approach has always remained the same. He said that he prepares for the practices and games the same way, whether he's the first, second or third-string quarterback. He said, "I'm gonna go out there and show them I can play."

O'Sullivan was 5-8, with 71 yards and one interception.

Nolan also said that he was impressed with Alex Smith's performance against Oakland last week. He said that Smith looked poised and patient in the short amount of time in which he played.

Smith was 5-9 for 51 yards and helped San Francisco set up their first field goal.

Throughout the first preseason game, the 49ers had several scoring chances but always fell short.

In the upcoming weeks, before the final decision is made about who will be the starting quarterback of this team, I'm sure we will see more points put up by these two guys. After all, the biggest measurable of a quarterback is whether or not he can lead his team down the field and score touchdowns.

Additional News and Notes

49ers waived veteran LB Brandon Moore.

Bryant Johnson and Arnaz Battle will not play in the second preseason game against Green Bay.

49ers signed LB Takeo Spikes. Terms of the deal were not announced by the team. Spikes has 139 career starts, with 1,177 tackles, 22.5 sacks, 15 fumble recoveries, 12 INTs, and 11 forced fumbles.

Also, Spikes is familiar with 49er Nate Clements. They played together in Buffalo, along with Jonas Jennings.

J.T. O'Sullivan Will Start the San Francisco 49ers' First Preseason Game

Fahad Zaidi — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:48:10 -0400

Mike Nolan has named J.T. O'Sullivan as the starter of the 49ers' first preseason game during a press conference after their practice on Wednesday.

He was quoted as saying, "I'm excited about our quarterbacks. I'm excited about all three of them. They've done a very good job. I continue to feel better and better about the possibility of actually having three guys that can play and win games for us during the season, and that hasn't changed."

Nolan said that the main reason for letting O'Sullivan start was because the team has experience with both Shaun and Alex in game situations, but they do not have experience with O'Sullivan.

Nolan added by saying, "O'Sullivan will work with the first group in this preseason game. Smith will play the rest of the first half and probably start the third quarter, and Shaun will finish out the game."

It should be interesting to see how well O'Sullivan can play with a new team under Mike Martz's system. O'Sullivan played behind John Kitna in Detroit last year, which is why he is most familiar with Martz's philosophy on the football field.

Nolan concluded by saying that this does not indicate anything other than how we are going to play the upcoming preseason game.

Open Mic: Most Influential Male Athlete

Fahad Zaidi — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:31:32 -0400

In recent years, there has only been one athlete who has dominated at a professional level, and also changed the image of a sport in a short amount of time. That athlete is Tiger Woods.

Although Tiger Woods has been playing golf since the age of 2, he became a professional golfer in the summer of 1996 at the tender age of 20. He immediately signed endorsement deals with Nike and Titleist worth 60 million dollars. His remarkable play garnished him Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year and PGA Rookie of the Year honors.

Also in his rookie year, Woods began his tradition of wearing a red shirt during the final round of tournaments because he beleived that the color symbolizes aggresion and assertiveness.

The following year, he won the Masters by a record of 12 strokes, set 20 records and tied six other records on his way to become the youngest and first African-American or Asian-American to win at the Masters. While expectations for Woods were high, his form faded in the second half of 1997, and in 1998 he only won one PGA Tour event.

In June 1999, Tiger Woods won the Memorial Tournament. This victory marked the beginning of one the greatest periods of dominance in the history of this golf.

He completed the campaign with by winning his last four starts, including the PGA championship, and finished with 8 wins. Up to that point, this feat had not been accomplished in the past 25 years.

In 2000, Woods won three consecutive majors, nine PGA tour events and set or tied 27 Tour records. He completed his sixth consecutive win at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am with a comeback for the ages. Trailing by seven strokes with seven holes to play, he finished eagle-birdie-par-birdie for a 64 and a two-stroke victory.

In the same year, during the US Open he broke or tied a total of nine U.S. Open records with his 15-shot win, including Old Tom Morris's record for the largest victory margin ever in a major championship, which had stood since 1862. He also became the Tour's all-time career money leader.

Sports Illustrated deservedly called it “the greatest performance in golf history.”

At the age of 24, Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to achieve the Career Grand Slam.

His 2001 Masters Tournament victory marked the only time within the era of the Modern Grand Slam that any player has been the holder of four major championships at the same time. This feat is now unofficially known as the “Tiger-Slam”.

In 2002, he became only the third person to win back-to-back Masters Tournaments. Once again, he took home the money title, Vardon Trophy, and Player of the Year honors for the fourth year in a row.

Woods’ Nike endorsement deal, worth 105 million dollars, was the largest endorsing deal signed by an athlete at that time.

Woods’ endorsement deal has been credited to taking the Nike Golf brand from a "start-up" golf company earlier in the past decade, to becoming the leading golf apparel company in the world and a major player in the equipment and golf ball market.

Woods was also involved in every aspect of the launch of Buick's Rendezvous SUV. A company spokesman stated that Buick is happy with the value of Wood's endorsement, pointing out that more than 130,000 Rendezvous vehicles were sold in 2002 and 2003.

In 2004, Bill Belichick was quoted saying, “If Tiger Woods could go out and practice 14 hours on the driving range, I think there are things that we could do—all of us could do—to be better.”

In 2005, Woods closely worked with TAG Heuer to develop the world’s first professional golf watch.

Woods also endorses the Tiger Woods PGA Tour series of video games; he has done so from 1999 to 2008, and it is likely that he will continue to do so.

Tiger Woods has single handily changed the public image of the sport of golf. He is the reason why people tune in on Sunday’s to watch golf. They want to see him either win in a dominant fashion or stage one of his many memorable and unbelievable comebacks.

No one else has been as dominant or as great as Tiger Woods in any sport.

Through his resilient efforts and remarkable play, Tiger Woods has become the most influential athlete; not only in golf but in all sports.