Peyton Manning...

      The "what's wrong with Peyton Manning" question has been brought up a lot of ways over the final month of the regular season. Manning had a right thigh injury down the stretch, which he suffered December 14th in San Diego, and over the final five games of the regular season, he had one 300-yard passing game, two games with fewer than 200 yards passing, five touchdowns and six interceptions for the Broncos. There is definitely something wrong with Peyton Manning. Manning's health and recent play are again on the front burner. And the topic was something Broncos coach John Fox had little time or patience for, and still played him. Also, Peyton's recent numbers arent also up to his usual level of performance which did hurt the the Broncos. 

      The Broncos finished the season second in the league in scoring at 30.1 points per game, and Manning was second in the league for touchdown passes (39), fourth in passing yards (4,727) and fourth in passer rating (101.5). He did not throw a touchdown pass in two of the team's December games, however the wins over Buffalo and Oakland made up for that and also for the four-interception game over the loss to Cincinatti.

Playoffs are almost here.

   The NFL has never witnessed a playoff race as wild as this season's. And one of the most entertaining aspects of the race has been when contenders have been pitted against each other.
   Already, the New England Patriots have beaten the AFC's three other division leaders, having decisive victories over Denver, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. The Green Bay Packers have played Seattle, Philadelphia and New England, with wins over the latter two. Denver has split matchups with Indianapolis and New England and will face the Bengals in Week 16.
   While those contests have been important for figuring out tiebreakers, they also offer a glimpse of matchups that could develop down the road. Week 14 offers another round of possible playoff previews along with several other contests that have major postseason implications. A wild race appears to be finally nearing the finish line. 

Charles Grant Fired From Volunteer Assistant Job at Boise Sate.

     It's common to hear about former NFL athletes giving back to the community by becoming volunteer coaches or assistants at colleges and universities across the country once their playing days are over. That's the path that former New Orleans Saints 6'3", 285 Lb defensive end Charles Grant chose to take, but the circumstances around the end of his time as a volunteer assistant are quite shocking. Grant and another student (who's identity hasn't been revealed yet), were exchanging some words and were taunting each other. After some time of taunting, it then broke out into to a somewhat fight, where Grant then body slammed the student and threw him against the bleachers. Grant had been a volunteer linebackers coach for the Bowie State Bulldogs, whose regular season ended last Saturday with a win. The DII school is located just outside of Baltimore.
     A school spokesman told The Associated Press that the incident is being investigated by the university police department and that no charges have been filed in the matter as of now."The Department of Athletics has zero tolerance of behavior that violates the University's Core Values and jeopardizes the welfare of student-athletes," a statement from the school.

Heres a link to the video: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24801668/watch-former-saints-de-charles-grant-body-slams-man

Bowhunter Cup Was Canceled.

A day after it was announced that the U.S. would not participate in the Fifth Annual Bowhunter Cup, the Iroquois Nationals said on Thursday that the international exhibition game scheduled for Saturday at Buffalo's First Niagara Center is now cancelled due to the U.S. team dropping out. The game was announced less than a month ago, which is the latest in the series that annually pits the Iroquois against a team representing the U.S. The First Niagara Center will host the final rounds of the 2015 FIL World Indoor Lacrosse Championships next September.

U.S. Lacrosse took over running the indoor team recently, announcing Sept. 15 that Tony Resch would be the head coach, helped by a strong staff of Adam Mueller, Chris Schiller and Tim Soudan. Previously, independent groups have led the U.S. Indoor Team, including Graham D'Alvia and former head coach Tom Ryan. Last year, the Iroquois beat the  U.S. Developmental Team in the Bowhunter cup at Six Nations, their third straight victory in the series over the American team
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With U.S. Lacrosse now running the indoor team, a tryout date hasn't yet been announced, though sources tell that some big-name Americans such as Casey Powell, Paul Rabil, Kyle Hartzell, Brendan Mundorf, Drew Westervelt, Brian Langtry, Max Seibald and Mitch Belisle from the bronze-medal winning U.S. Team from 2011 are interested in participating. U.S. Lacrosse said Wednesday that they made no commitment to participate in this year's Bowhunter Cup.

"U.S. Lacrosse had no communication with and made no commitment to the organizer of the Bowhunter cup to participate," said U.S. Lacrosse CEO Steve Stenerson. "We were aware of the event, but the timing of the transition made the possibility of our participation unrealistic." So because of the U.S. team withdrawing and not participating in this Lacrosse Cup, it created this small mass of problems that caused the cup to be canceled and cause players and people to wait until next year.

Defensemen Lee Zink Finally retires.

After 11 years in the MLL, Defensemen of the Denver Outlaws Lee Zink retires at the age of 33 due to "The timing just being right" said Zink in an interview with Inside Lacrosse. Zink also had a couple of other reasons of why he retired. Zink and his wife were expecting there first child which probably contributed to his retirement. Also, Zink said that most of, if not, all of his goals that he'd want to accomplish, he did accomplish which gave him the thought of ending his career. Also, Lee Zink is still finishing his Master Degree in Laws and is working in the oil and gas industry.

During his time in the MLL, Lee Zink played a total of 117 games (116 Starts), which is the seventh most played games overall. He played two seasons with the Baltimore Bayhawks, and the other Nine seasons with the Denver Outlaws. He picked up a total of 232 ground balls, took a total of 4 shots at the goal, and 1 shot on goal. Lee was also named Defense Player of the Year in the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Zink was also selected to his seventh-consecutive MLL All-Star team and third-straight All-MLL team in his last season. Lee set a career high two time defensive player of the week in 2013.

During his time attending the University of Maryland and playing lacrosse there, Zink totaled 60 games (42 starts) at Maryland, where he scooped up 138 groundballs and scored one goal. Lee Zink was named the first team All-American as a senior, where he played 15 games (all starts) and collected a career-best 61 groundballs as a team captain. Also, he was named the William F. Schmeisser Division I Defensive Player of the Year and nominated for the Tewaaraton Trophy which was awarded to the nation’s top player. Zink also made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team and the ACC All-Tournament team, ranked second on the team in caused turnovers (42) and 62 groundballs. During his junior year of college, he earned the third team All-American honors. Lee helped Maryland to a 7.25 goals against average, playing 16 games (15 starts) with 41 groundballs and a team-best 32 forced turnovers. Lee held his opposing man scoreless for four games in row late in the season during the Terps’ run to the NCAA Semifinals. Named Maryland Student-Athlete of the Week in his Junior year on May 4 after week in which he had 10 groundballs, 12 caused turnovers and first career goal. He posted career-highs with nine groundballs and seven caused turnovers at Notre Dame (5/3). Scored his first goal and caused five turnovers vs. Georgetown (4/28, earning Terp Vision Player of the game honors. Appeared in 13 games (12 starts) as a sophomore, scooping up 28 groundballs. He became a member of the NCAA's top defense, allowing less than seven goals per game, and during his freshman season, he played 16 games (0 starts) and registered eight groundballs. All in all, Lee Zink was a savage during his whole college and MLL career.

New 2015-2017 NCAA Lacrosse Rule Changes

On September 10th, the NCAA playing rules oversight panels (PROP) approved multiple rule changes for the incoming season of the 2015 Men's Lacrosse season. The highlight of these approvals are rules mostly regarding stalling, and the way face offs are commenced and there are also some other rule changes and additions. Some of which are visible shot clocks, a new timeout system and also some new uniform changes.

First off, the new rule of stalling also helped implement a new shot clock on the field so that players don't stall and take forever to make/score a goal and a new rule of shooting. They are currently saying that shot clocks requirements will be met on the release of the shot. This will be putting a lot more responsibility on the officials to determine a shot was made before the shot clock expires. Also, this will also put more stress on a defense men as knocking down a shot will no longer help them to kill the shot clock. When stalling is called, “A visible clock will enable everyone to see the start and stop of the clock when stalling is called,” said Jon Hind, committee chair and director of athletics at Hamilton College in New York. “We continue to refine and improve the methods used to deter teams from stalling.” In the beginning of the next season, all Division 1 teams will be required to display a visible shot clock, while in the next season in 2016, all Division 2 and 3 teams will be required to have the visible shot clock, all of these shot clocks being 30 seconds long. These new implements are having mixed feelings on everyone involved or interested in the world of NCAA Lacrosse.

Next, There have also been some changes to the rule of diving, face offs, a new timeout system and a couple of other small changes. Firstly, the new changes to diving is that in plays around the crease, if a player remains on the ground and released the ball before landing in or on the crease, the goal will be accounted for. If players are seen diving into the crease to make a goal, they will have that goal wiped off by official rule. This is a solid change in my opinion, any guy who can successfully tiptoe outside the crease until the ball has crossed the goal line, is a beast lacrosse player. Some other approvals are a new timeout system. Only the team that is in possession of the ball or entitled to possession are allowed to call timeouts, only when the ball is out of bounds. The defenses are going to absolutely despise this rule because this stops defense from coming up with better personnel and clearing schemes while the offense is rapidly, trying to move the ball or trying to carry momentum. Also, both teams will still have rights to call timeouts during all other dad ball situations. The other new rule change of the game is a change in the mechanics of face offs when they are proceeded. Players will no longer be able to carry and pick up the ball in the back of the pocket after a face off. Players will also still have to follow the rule of the 4 inch center line, and instead of the ball already being set in between the players, the official will now place the ball in the middle of the players once they are in position. The rest of the face off rules are still applied like the down, set rule. Lastly there were some uniform changes to the colors so that all uniform numbers are in contrast to the color of the uniform. For Example, light colored uniforms have dark numbers and vice versa. So, Some of these rule changes were really smart and solid changes and some weren't so good and shouldn't have been approved in my own opinion.