The Lantern Blog

Today, the 2009 National Football League schedule was released to the public.  For fans of the two Ohio NFL teams, there are some stark differences in the schedules.

For the Cincinnati Bengals, they draw the toughest schedule in the AFC North, according to NFL.com.  The team opens on September 13, 2009 vs. the Denver Broncos.  The next two games are at Green Bay, vs. Pittsburgh, and then a road trip to see the Cleveland Browns for the first time in the season.

Chad Johnson will be able to wear Ocho Cinco on the back of his jersey this season.

It certainly appears off hand that the Cincinnati Bengals got a raw deal for the upcoming season.  The first part of the schedule appears brutal with games vs. Pittsburgh, at Baltimore, and vs. Chicago.

The Cleveland Browns are a different story.  They have the 8th softest schedule in the league, which should help them to improve significantly this year.  They will play one Monday Night Football game this year vs. Baltimore in Week 10.

With the exception of games against San Diego and Pittsburgh, the Browns appear like they could cruise right on through. If they can improve their defense, this team could take a big stride this year.

Terrell Owens, the former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, has agreed to a one-year deal with the Buffalo Bills.  Owen’s deal is worth $6.5 million, with a $4 million signing bonus.  The deal also offers guaranteed money to the wideout.

One of the things that Owens wanted in his new team was a solid quarterback to pass him the ball.  His signing with Buffalo comes as a surprise, because Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards is not necessarily an established passer in the National Football League.  He is young and has potential, but he is still in a developmental stage.

That said, Buffalo does not have a very strong receiving core, and Terrell Owens becomes the team’s top wide receiving threat.  He will play directly across from wide receiver Lee Evans, who was drafted out of Wisconsin.

It should be very interesting to see how Owens performs in his season with Buffalo.

ESPN is reporting that the Dallas Cowboys have decided to cut their star wide receiver, Terrell Owens.

After three years in Dallas—filled with controversy after controversy—the Cowboys decided that the wideout just wasn’t worth the trouble.

Late last season, team owner Jerry Jones said, “The more they’re talking about the Cowboys, the more we like it,” in response to Owens’ antics. 

I suppose this will get tongues waggling about “America’s Team” too.

Owen’s release comes after just one year on his four-year extension.  Last season, Owens exceeeded 1,000 yards receiving, and caught 10 TDs.

This comes just hours after several other high profile free agents were retained by their teams.  The Ravens re-signed MLB Ray Lewis.  The Arizona Cardinals re-signed QB Kurt Warner.

In Ohio football news, the Cincinnati Bengals signed WR Laveranues Coles to replace Houshmandzadeh.

WARNING—Must be a fan of Fox’s 24 to get the first paragraph, and it must be read with a low and raspy voice. If you don’t like 24, just go ahead and scroll past it!

Beep-bip…..beep-bip…..beep-bip.

Three minutes left. The underdog Arizona Cardinals seem to be making the impossible happen. They are mounting a comeback. Extremely well placed shots move the team down the field and closer to victory. Suddenly, BAM! Dubaku and his clan of bad guys use the CIP device to attack Americans yet again! The target—innocent football fans. The method—30 seconds of porn interrupting the come from behind drive.

Credit: PerezHilton.com

OK, that was lame—but this story is REAL! According to the Arizona Daily Star, about 30 seconds of porn interrupted the game, just after Larry Fitzgerald caught a pass from Kurt Warner to put the Cardinals ahead of the Steelers late in the game. 

According to The Escapist, the clip was from a movie playing on a pay-per-view channel—Shorteez—offered by Comcast.

“We did an extensive preliminary check on our technical systems, and everything appeared to be working properly when the incident occurred,” a Comcast spokeswoman said. She also claimed it was an “isolated malicious act.”

Au contraire, later on in the Daily Star article, the reporter claims that a warning shot was fired. The first interruption came earlier in the game. It showed rolling credits from an adult film that had just finished on another adult channel, Club Jenna.

The BBC reports that Tuscon-based KVOA-TV, the NBC affiliate whose cable feed was interrupted, was not the source of the breach. “When the NBC feed of the Super Bowl was transmitted from KVOA to local cable providers and through over-the-air antennas, there was no pornographic material,” company president Gary Nielsen said.

Now, what would it be worth to you if were forced to see someone’s naughty bits intstead of your hometeam touchdown celebrations. Comcast thinks it’s roughly $10 in credit.

Why the payout? Shhhh, so nobody tells the FCC! That’s accoding to a blogger for the Village Voice in New York.

Perez Hilton even lended his own bit of wit to the topic Tuesday.

Seven years after the death of former Buckeye Korey Stringer, his widow and the NFL have buried the hatchet.  The AP is reporting that the two have reached a settlement.  Kelci Stringer had filed a wrongful death suit against the league, in wake of the 2001 death at Minnesota Vikings training camp.

While the majority of the terms of the settlement remain undisclosed, one thing we do know for certain is the NFL is required to establish a program for the prevention of heat illnesses in the future.  ESPN described it as a victory for Stringer, who is still in a battle with Riddell, manufacturer of helmets and pads used by the NFL players.  The manufacturer’s products may worsen  heat related problems at training camps.

This suit may be bolstered by a new study that the Columbus Dispatch summarized earlier this year.   The study found that players wearing the full range of NFL pads and helmet heated up considerably faster than without the equipment on.

On that same note, the Wall Street Journal brings us a story from Kentucky, where a high school football coach is being criminally charged with reckless homocide after a player died of heat related causes.