The obvious continuing (and disturbing) trend for the Penguins and their fans is the play in goal of Marc-Andre Fleury. The former No. 1 pick has been shaky at best and awful at worse for the better part of three straight playoffs now. The Pittsburgh netminder hit a new low Tuesday night into Wednesday, however. Fleury gave up six goals in the Penguins’ Game 4 loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, Bylsma made the change that needed to be made.

The Pittsburgh head coach announced backup Tomas Vokoun would make the start in the pivotal Game 5. One would think that the job is now Vokoun’s to lose, especially the way Fleury has played in net.

Fleury’s postseason struggles date back to the 2011 playoffs. Aside from a Game 2 loss in which he gave up four goals, he was really good, good enough to give Pittsburgh a 3-1 series lead against Tampa Bay.

From there, though, it was a meltdown. He gave up four goals in Game 5, an 8-2 whooping from the Lightning. He then gave up four more in Game 6. Fleury rebounded in Game 7 giving up just a goal, but Dwayne Roloson was better, and the Penguins were gone.

Last season was even worse. Fleury gave up 17 goals in the first three games, as Pittsburgh would fall behind 3-0 in the series. The Pens pushed it to a Game 6, only for Fleury to give up four more goals.

Now, here he is just four games into this year’s playoffs. After shutting out the Islanders in Game 1, he’s allowed 14 goals in the three games that followed.

Add it all up, and Fleury has allowed 40 goals in his last 10 playoff games, and 59 in his last 13.

That’s not the only excuse for the Penguins, though. They didn’t have Sidney Crosby in 2011. Gone, too, that year was Evgeni Malkin. Their defensive corps, while not filled with Norris candidates this year, isn’t as bad as it was last year. The D-men were just as much to blame in 2012 as anything else.

But this year was supposed to be different. Crosby and Malkin are both healthy. Chris Kunitz is having a career year. Kris Letang is a Norris candidate. Ray Shero went out and plucked veteran forwards Jarome Iginla and Brenden Morrow as well as big defenseman Doug Murray at the deadline.

This team is loaded, everyone said. Except for in between the pipes. That one glaring question mark has become the all-too-obvious reason as to why the Islanders actually have a chance to derail the Penguins’ march to the Stanley Cup. For that, Bylsma and the rest of the Penguins coaching staff had to make a move.

So now they turn to Vokoun, hoping he can at least be solid. That’s what must make Fleury’s struggles so infuriating for the Pens. They just need Fleury, basically, to not suck. The Penguins are going to score, and they’re going to be in position to win games. They don’t need someone to stand on his head, they just need someone who won’t blow up like Fleury has all too often.

Vokoun should, in theory, be an improvement. His success against the Islanders probably makes the decision even easier. He’s appeared in four games this season against the Islanders and he’s made three starts. In those games, he’s 3-0-1 having stopped 98 of the 101 shots.

So there’s the potential for him to be good. But the biggest thing he’s got going for him right now is that he’s not Marc-Andre Fleury. For that, the job is now his.

That line took an even greater hit when Chris Kelly went down with a broken tibia last month in a game against the Ottawa Senators. While Kelly’s numbers are unlikely to raise any eyebrows, there’s no denying that he’s still a serviceable two-way center in the NHL.

His absence may have been somewhat subtle, forgotten even at times. The veteran centerman returned to the lineup on Monday night, and his presence has been felt right away.

Kelly hasn’t exactly torn things up since returning, but that’s never been his game. He continues to do the little things that don’t necessarily show up in the “G-A-P” columns, but  the things he does win games more often than not.

The veteran was especially effective Wednesday night in the Bruins’ 5-4 win over the New Jersey Devils. While there were plenty of things to call out and criticize on the Bruins’ side, there wasn’t much of anything to complain about in regards to Kelly’s game.

He’s one of the club’s most important penalty killers, and that was evident Wednesday. Kelly helped the Bruins kill off all eight penalties the Bruins were assessed. Kelly played 6:47 of his 16:58 of ice time on the PK. He played an integral role in keeping the Devils off the board on the power play in the second period when he got enough of his stick on Patrik Elias‘ to keep the Devils forward from scoring. Kelly was at it again in the game’s final minute. The Devils, already on the power play, pulled Martin Brodeur to give themselves a 6-on-4. Kelly eventually broke up a pass across the slot before clearing his own crease to ensure the B’s could escape with the one-goal win.

The penalty kill is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Kelly’s game. With Patrice Bergeron out, the Bruins’ faceoff aptitude takes a bit of a hit. However, Kelly is pulling his weight in his return to the dot. He won 12 of 19 draws Wednesday night, and he has won 57 percent of his faceoffs in the two games he’s played since returning.

He also helps stabilize the Bruins down the middle, which is important right about now. It’s amazing how one big injury — like a concussion to Bergeron — can unsettle your lines. We saw in the couple of games between Bergeron’s injury and Kelly’s return how haywire things can go when there’s a lack of center depth. Just ask Tyler Seguin, who was clearly overwhelmed by moving to center in Bergeron’s absence. Things got so bad, in fact, that Claude Julien was forced to move Seguin back to wing Saturday night in Montreal. To accommodate that move, Julien had to move Jaromir Jagr down to a line with Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell, which doesn’t serve much purpose other than allowing Paille and Campbell to one day tell their grandkids they played on a line with Jagr.

However, with Kelly returning, things have gotten straightened out some. Kelly served the last two games as a pivot for Paille and Seguin, which allowed Jagr to move back to a line with Brad Marchand and Campbell. All the Bruins have done since making those moves was combine to score 11 goals in two games.

Julien is certainly taking note of having Kelly back in the fold. The Bruins coach called Kelly’s efforts “unbelievable” on Thursday morning.

There are still plenty of things to improve upon for the Bruins right now, but getting Kelly back is certainly going to help.

For that, the younger group of Boston sports fans has appropriately been leveled with the label “spoiled,” and that’s well-deserved. Be that as it may, there are still regrets for those who didn’t grow up in the 60s, 70s and 80s where New England’s sports teams were no slouches. Even better, the athletes of those generations were giants compared to those of today.

Most notably, is Bobby Orr, who celebrated his 65th birthday Wednesday. In full disclosure, I’m only 25 years old, which means No. 4′s knees gave out on him, ending a legend’s career way too soon, long before I was even a thought. But as I comb through stories and anecdotes looking back at Orr’s career, I can’t help but thinking I’ve been robbed. Much like Orr was robbed by chronic knee problems, I was robbed as a sports fan by never seeing Orr play hockey. What we would give to just see Orr play once on Boston Garden ice…

For me and those of my generation, our best memories of Orr are seeing the replays of him flying through the air to score that famous goal in 1970. It’s that or perhaps seeing Orr triumphantly returning to Boston in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final as an honorary captain, providing a memorable moment by waving the injured Nathan Horton’s player flag prior to Game 4.

Sure, there are plenty of damn-good hockey players in today’s NHL, and a few of them play right here in Boston. But I think it goes without saying that we’ll never see another player like Orr. The times are so incredibly different, and that obviously plays a factor. Athletes of today are businessmen. Athletes of yesterday, well, they were folk heroes.

There’s arguably no bigger folk hero in New England sports history than Orr. Sure, Ted Williams was the greatest hitter to ever live, but he tended to be surly. Larry Bird was a legend, but he tended to be quiet and reserved.

Orr, however, transcended the game on and off the ice. His 1969-70 season truly changed the way we looked at defensemen in the NHL. While he may not have been extremely outgoing, especially compared to some of his wilder teammates, Orr’s largely regarded as just one fantastic human being. Eric Duhatschek of The Globe and Mail penned a wonderful piece about Orr turning 65 with some insightful commentary from Orr himself. Yet it’s striking as to what you find in the comments. At one point Thursday, the first page of comments featured 10 uses of the word “class” when recalling Orr.

It’s unlikely someone like Orr will ever come around again, and that’s not just from a playing standpoint. The culture of present-day sports simply does not allow for players to be as kind, humble and generous as Orr is. Even Orr himself admits this to an extent.

“It’s really a changing world,” Orr told The Globe and Mail. “We work with young [super prospect] Connor McDavid. Think about the pressure. He’s 15 years old, for gawd’s sakes. He’s a hell of a talent, but are you kidding me? We’ve got the New York Times coming in to talk to him. We’ve got USA Today coming in. Nobody came to Parry Sound to talk to me. It’s really different today.

“If people would just think what all these young kids go through, with all the people in their ears. Or they go on the Internet and there are haters on the Internet. Not everyone is going to like you. That’s what their moms and dads have to understand. There’s negative stuff and now they go with dad, and there’s negative stuff from their dads and what the hell does that do for the kid? Let’s be positive with these kids.”

Could it really be said any better?

The real spoiled sports fans are the ones who are old enough to remember Orr and the glory days of those Bruins and have lived long enough to see the recent reign of all things Boston sports. Good for them. (We have iPads and stuff. These are some of the trade-offs you make). But for someone who grew up after the days of Orr (and even Bird), the recent tributes and recollections of No. 4′s playing days can’t help but make you a little bit jealous. Much like fans who were lucky enough to see Orr skate up and down the Garden ice were left asking “What if Orr never got injured?”, I can’t help but wonder to myself “What if I grew up in the days of Orr?”

Click here to see a list of Bobby Orr’s greatest accomplishments and moments >>

Things got so bad, in fact, that Subban was yanked midway through the second period in an attempt to keep things from getting out of hand with the U.S. taking a 4-0 lead that they would obviously not relinquish.

It might be tough for American hockey fans to comprehend how big of a deal this is in Canada. The Canadian team was supposed to be one of the best in recent memory. The NHL lockout afforded the Canadian team the opportunity for players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Dougie Hamilton to skate with the Canadians in the quest for their first gold medal since 2009.

That all came crashing down on Thursday, though. The Canadians were flat-out embarrassed by the upstart American team, a club that no doubt gained confidence from a hard-fought 2-1 loss to the Canadians in the preliminary round. In that 2-1 loss, the Americans and the rest of the hockey world saw how scary good Subban can be when he’s on his game.

The 19-year-old bounced back from sluggish performances against Germany and Slovakia to stand on his head with a 36-save effort against America.

“I’m really proud of him,” Canadian head coach Steve Spott said after that first game, according to the Toronto Sun. “I think goaltending in our country has been on the forefront the last couple of years. It’s a big moment for Malcolm, a big moment for our hockey club.”

Thursday was an even bigger moment, however, and the results could not have been any different. It was a loss that will be scrutinized over and over up north. Subban will likely be the object of much of that scrutiny.

But to simply blame Subban for the Canadian’s latest failure to realize expectations would be foolish. As many have already pointed out, just about any goalie would have had issues in the same situation. Subban was screened on two of the goals, and the other tallies had just as much to do with porous defense as they did shoddy goaltending.

It goes without saying that’s pretty difficult to stop what you can’t see, and there’s no need to remind everyone that hockey is still a team game.

If the prelim round game against Team USA was a big moment for Subban as a goalie, then Bruins fans will hope that their 2012 first-round pick can somehow make Thursday’s disappointment a big moment in his maturation process.

The four-goal letdown has some even questioning whether or not Subban was worth a first-round pick. That line of thinking will rightfully be dismissed for now. Let’s not forget that this is a 19-year-old kid who still has plenty of learning and growing up to do. To say that the Bruins wasted a first-round pick on Subban (don’t forget the B’s goaltending uncertainty following the 2013 season) is premature at best, laughable at worst. You have to let the kid develop. The list of goalies who have endured struggles before reaching the NHL is a fairly sizable one.

That being said, it is on Subban to really prove that he was worth the first-round pick. It’s obvious that he can be successful. In 26 games with the Belleville Bulls in the OHL this season, he’s 15-7-3 with a sparkling 2.17 goals against average to go along with a tidy .932 save percentage. The talent is undeniable. Whether or not Subban can put it all together on a consistent basis? Well, that remains to be seen.

But let’s not rush to any rash judgment here. We’ve seen enough of Subban’s talent to know that even with the adversity he faced Thursday against the Americans, that he’s a better goaltender than that. There’s a reason that he’s been compared, in a technique sense, to Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist.  Yet, Subban is probably going to face criticism and questioning now, most of it unjustified.

It’s on Subban to use those critiques and questions the right way. If he can do that, and continue to learn and mature along the way, Thursday’s setback will be nothing but a distant memory in a few years. You know, when he’s in the NHL proving that he was worth that first-round pick.

The Houston Texans have had two chances this year, on national TV in prime time, to prove that they belong among the NFL’s elite.

In both of those opportunities, they have come up woefully short.

After being stomped out by the Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football in Week 6, the Texans laid another egg on Monday, this time on Monday Night Football against the Patriots.

The Texans did their best Arizona Cardinals impression — the Week 14 Cardinals, not the Week 2 variation that beat the Patriots — and were embarrassed in front of the nation yet again by New England.

The Patriots decimated the Texans in every aspect of football on Monday night, steamrolling Houston and showing the rest of football that they may very well be the best team in the AFC.

Monday night was an indication of how good the Patriots are, no doubt, but it was perhaps more an indictment on the Texans.

Andre Johnson said that this was the most important regular-season game in Houston history, and if this is how the Texans respond to historic opportunities, they are going to be in deep trouble when the playoffs get here.

The Texans gave reason to believe that their 11-1 record was nothing more than a mirage, showcasing a comedy of errors for the better part of 60 minutes on an unusually warm December night in Foxboro.

Tom Brady has made a Hall of Fame career out of making defenses look bad, but he got a lot of help on Monday night.

From the jump, the Texans looked confused on the defensive side. Things were so bad in the first half that one might assume that they didn’t even watch film in the week leading up to the game. The Texans blew coverage left and right, bit on just about every crucial playaction and left a lot to be desired when it came to tackling.

In a matter of just a few plays, cornerback Kareem Jackson was turned inside out by Wes Welker on a route down the left seem and followed it up by woefully failing to fall on a Stevan Ridley fumble inside the 5-yard line. On the next play, the Texans allowed an easy touchdown to Aaron Hernandez.

That touchdown, however, was not nearly as easy for Hernandez as the score he hauled in two drives later. On first and goal from the 4-yard line, the Texans apparently forgot that Hernandez was even on the field. The New England tight end was left all alone wide to the left, and Brady doesn’t miss those. The result? The easiest touchdown of Hernandez’s life.

The result was a 21-0 hold with 11:01 to play in the second quarter, a deficit that the usually explosive Texans offense showed no signs of being able to crawl out of.

Quarterback Matt Schaub was awful. He made poor decisions all night, and when he did make the right call, he missed open receivers. Arian Foster dropped a couple of passes out of the backfield on a couple of crucial second-quarter drives, possessions that the Texans desperately needed to score touchdowns on to try and even make things respectable.

It left the Texans in a desperate position where they were forced to attempt two fourth-down conversions in the second quarter. The first resulted in a drop from Kevin Walter. The second saw an unblocked Jerod Mayo pressure Schaub into horribly overthrowing Walter — who probably would have dropped it anyway.

The Texans headed to the locker room down 21-0, and with 30 minutes to play, this supposed matchup between supposed AFC powers was over. It didn’t get much better in the second half, and Houston was rolled 42-14 when it was all said and done.

Unsurprisingly, Johnson was singing a different tune after the game.

“We know how important this game was to us,” he said.  ”It was a good ass whipping, and that is pretty much it.”

If the Week 6 performance against the Packers was any sort of indication that the Texans aren’t ready for prime time, Monday night validated it for now at least.  Or at the very least proved that elite quarterbacks will give the Texans fits. In three games against “elite” quarterbacks — Brady, Rodgers and Peyton Manning – the Texans have allowed 12 touchdown passes to no interceptions.

There’s still time for the Texans to turn it around. And ample credit must be given to the Patriots for executing their game plan and punching the Texans square in the mouth over and over and over again, doing their best Juan Manuel Marquez impression by landing an early knockout punch.

“We just got outplayed in all aspects of the game,” Foster said after the game. “We didn’t play well. I didn’t play well. It’s hard to come back from a deficit when you are playing a team of that caliber. We feel we’re a better team than that. We have to take this loss on the chin and get ready for next week.”

To add one more tacky cliche, it’s on the Texans to get up off the mat. They may be 11-2 and still have the inside track to the No. 1 seed in the conference. That means that not only might they get another shot at the Patriots. They’ll likely get that shot at home.

But until they can show they can show up and perform when the lights are shining bright, questions about their ability to win big games will continue, and they’re only going to get louder.

However, the Cowboys looked to have overcome those odds to get a drive-prolonging first down. Quarterback Tony Romo dropped a perfect pass into the hands of Dez Bryant down the right sideline.

The Cowboys receiver looked poised to haul it in, gain the first down and resuscitate the dying drive. Cincinnati safety Reggie Nelson had other plans, though. He came from his position to lay the boom on Bryant, delivering what was a textbook, although bone-jarring, hit on Bryant. The crushing blow sent the ball skyward before it fell harmlessly to the ground. The Cowboys would have to punt.

That, however, is when a little yellow penalty flag came flying in. The Nelson hit on Bryant, which is how you want your players to play the game, had been flagged for a personal foul. With that came an automatic first down, taking any potential momentum from the Bengals. The Cowboys weren’t able to capitalize, but they would eventually win the game on a last-second field goal.

See the play and call in question below.

As you might imagine, the Bengals were none too pleased with the call.

“I thought it was a great target and probably one that will be on their [NFL] teaching reel of how to do it,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said, according to Cincinnati.com. “Reggie’s done a good job with those things. He was on their teaching reel last year, and I thought that one was picture-perfect.”

Nelson also defended himself.

“That’s what [defensive coordinator Mike] Zimmer teaches us — to go low and not aim for anybody’s head,” Nelson said. “I think I did a good job of taking that teaching.”

That’s actually a pretty calm way of disputing the call, especially given how bad it actually was. Defensive players simply can’t do their job anymore. The genesis of the crackdown on illegal hits makes all the sense in the world — the NFL needs to protect its players, especially given all the recent revelations in relation to head injuries. But they apparently need to do a better job of defining, and just as importantly enforcing, those rules.

Nelson’s hit was as picture-perfect as they come. He leads with his shoulder, not his head. He makes contact with Bryant’s sternum and shoulders, not his head. Nelson doesn’t launch himself at Bryant — he just runs through him. Bryant even has a split-second to brace himself for impact, which seems to indicate he wasn’t defenseless, either.

Making matters worse is the fact that the flag comes in from an official who is away from the play. The side judge on the right sideline has a perfect view of the play, about 10 yards away. He sees Bryant right in front of him, and he can obviously see that Nelson doesn’t deliver a helmet-to-helmet hit. He immediately comes down the sideline waving his arms, signaling an incomplete pass. The flag, however, comes flying in from the middle of the field toward the back of the secondary — from the back judge. He’s running backwards, away from the play, and doesn’t appear to have a very good view of the play. He wasn’t about to let that get in the way of him throwing his flag, though.

The inconsistencies surrounding these types of hits are on display every Sunday. The NFL continues to flub it up when it comes to these types of hits, not to mention pass interference calls, as both have become coin flips.

We may not know what a penalty is anymore, but what is incredibly evident, especially in wake of this horrible call on Sunday, is that it’s becoming more and more difficult to play good, clean, hard-nosed football on the defensive side of the ball.

The Fish have already reportedly agreed to ship a host of players including Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle to Toronto in the club’s latest attempt to ditch payroll. They’re looking to trade away every other piece of their major league roster, apparently, at least roster members not named Giancarlo Stanton or Billy the Marlin.

The next name on the chopping, er trading block is Logan Morrison. According to Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post, the Marlins are now shopping the young player, as well as pitcher Ricky Nolasco.

It will be interesting to see what kind of market there is for Morrison, but the Red Sox are one team that may want to get in on the LoMo action.

The Sox are still on the lookout for help at first base and corner outfield. So it only makes sense that they would value a player like Morrison who can play both positions. While Morrison has played a lot of outfield since reaching the majors, there are some who think his career will start escalating toward the next level upon moving to first base on a more permanent basis.

This, from ESPN’s Buster Olney.

Rival execs believe that Logan Morrison will be in a much better position for success once he returns to 1B, his primary position in minors.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) November 14, 2012

However, Morrison is coming off of a forgettable 2011 season marred by inconsistency and injury. The 25-year-old hit just .230 with 11 home runs and 36 RBIs in 93 games. That went along with a .707 OPS. With those types of numbers, even with Morrison under team control through 2016, you’d be hard-pressed to give up much of anything to acquire him.

He has shown, though, that he can produce at the major league level. Just a year before, Morrison hit .247 with 23 home runs, 72 RBIs and a .798 OPS. He showed the ability to hit the ball to the gaps with 25 doubles as well. That type of power is something that Morrison has displayed at virtually every level of pro ball, a rarity for a young player.

Morrison’s strong bat, which may only flourish in Fenway Park, is something the Sox could use as well. Morrison has shown, when he’s healthy and going well, that he’ll hit to all fields.

Now, is the 2010 season more of an aberration than anything else, especially in the wake of Morrison’s 2011 season? Maybe, maybe not. The true answer may lie somewhere in the middle. However, if the Red Sox think they might be able to get 20 home runs and maybe 75 RBIs out of Morrison at the first base position, you have to figure that they would at least explore the option.

In a very, very limited sample size, Morrison has already proved he likes Fenway Park. He tore up the Red Sox when the Marlins came in for a June series this past summer, going 4-for-11 with two home runs and six RBIs. Again, it’s a small sample size, but the numbers would indicate that Morrison can hit at Fenway. If you don’t believe the numbers, ask the player himself.

Logan likes hitting at Fenway Pawk #Pissah

— Logan Morrison (@LoMoMarlins) June 20, 2012

“It’s amazing. The fans are great,” Morrison said of Fenway Park during that sweltering series in June. “I think it’s definitely cozy. You get that ‘the fans are on top of you’ feeling. I like it. It’s cool, it’s good.It’s a great park. Boston should be proud.”

Away from the field, Morrison has been criticized at times in the past for his behavior away from the field. He has a very high-profile social media presence with more than 124,000 Twitter followers to his name. Some say that he tweets too much, and that he uses Twitter in the wrong ways.

That may be true to an extent, but at the same time, he’s a 25-year-old kid. He’s going to continue to mature, and maybe a new organization is just what he needs. After all, there’s no player with major league talent who deserves the punishment of playing in that Marlins organization, not anymore at least.

For all of the criticisms of Morrison’s attitude, makeup and any other sort of intangibles, he has shown the ability and willingness to mature into a player that could be a leader someday. It was Morrison who reportedly challenged Hanley Ramirez in 2011 after the shortstop continuously showed up late. For a Red Sox team looking to reestablish its core coming off of a couple of embarrassing seasons, Morrison might be the type of player you look to build a core with.

It’s too early to tell if Morrison will even be moved, let alone to Boston. But there are reasons to believe it could work. The position fits. The player seems to fit. And the money fits. The Red Sox are looking to fill some pretty substantial holes this offseason, and picking off the Miami scrap heap may be a fine place to make a real impact.

Believe it or not, however, some might say that playing the Houston Texans in Week 10 of the NFL schedule is not one of those moments, at least not compared to say, seeing the birth of a child.

With that obviously in mind, Bears cornerback Charles Tillman has already said that if his wife goes into labor this weekend, he — one of the NFL’s best defensive players this season — will opt to be with his family (his real one) instead of with the Bears. The baby — Tillman’s fourth — is due Monday, but he told a radio station Wednesday that if his wife goes into labor Sunday, he’ll be there.

“The wife is due any day, so hopefully this baby can stay in until after the game on Sunday,” Tillman said Wednesday on WSCR-AM 670. “I hope she stays in — I’m having another girl. Monday, for sure, but if she comes Sunday, I think I’m going to have to be at the hospital Sunday. So, I hope she stays in until after Sunday.”

Coincidentally, the 7-1 Bears are set to take on the 7-1 Houston Texans.

Big game, obviously. Whatever. You only get so many opportunities to see the birth of your child — unless you’re Antonio Cromartie — and you get 16 Sundays a year to play professional football. And while I’ve never been a part of the birth process aside from my own entry into the world (and hopefully it stays that way for a long time), I’ve heard some pretty rave reviews about the whole fatherhood thing.

The decision to skip one of those games of football to welcome another human being into the world is harmless, no?

Apparently, it isn’t.

ProFootballTalk.com’s Mike Florio is one of those people who think that Tillman owes it to everyone but his family to be at the game, instead of being with his family to witness the miracle of birth.

“It’s a thorny issue,” Florio wrote Wednesday afternoon. “My position was and is that the players have made a lifestyle choice that entails being available 16 days per year, no matter what.  If they choose not to plan their nine-month family expansion activities to coincide with the eight months per year when their work activities don’t entail playing games that count, why should their teams suffer the consequences?”

Florio is right that players like Tillman have made these “lifestyle choices” to play professional football, that’s a good point. But just because you’re a football player, that doesn’t mean you’re not a human being. It doesn’t mean you’re not a husband. It doesn’t mean you’re not a father.

Those “lifestyle choices” come into play when teams fly to opposing cities for away games. They come into play when players put in long hours at practice, the weight room and classroom. They come into play when those players come home from practice and immediately turn on game film. They come into play when there’s nothing “off” about the offseason.

Those are the type of sacrifices pro athletes and coaches — and their families — make. And they’re rewarded for it, with a whole bunch of money. But some things transcend that. Correction: very few things transcend that. The birth of a child is one of those things.

Don’t expect someone like Tillman to take those types of things for granted, either. As ESPN.com points out, Tillman and his wife Jackie have been through some things before. His daughter Tiana was born with a form of cardiomyopathy, which is a weakening of the heart and the pumping system. That required a heart transplant.

So yeah. Slowing down Andre Johnson and the Houston Texans means a little less on the life scale when you start throwing around words like cardiomyopathy.

Florio also asks why teammates should suffer because Tillman just went ahead and decided to have a child during the season. Because they’re his teammates, that’s why. No matter how many tough-guy cliches we want to throw around about how football players are “brothers who go to war together” or some other lame saying, they aren’t family. Your family is your family. How hard is that?

Kudos to Tillman for standing up to these preconceived notions and putting his focus where it should be — on the things that actually matter in life.

Maybe, just maybe, Florio, who has a history of stirring up you-know-what, is doing it again to get some clicks on his website. He also does some work for NBC, including the Sunday night broadcast, which just so happens to be Bears-Texans this week. So there’s that week, too. Maybe he’s just so wrapped up in football that he can’t see there’s a real world out there that takes place outside the gridiron. Who knows.

We may never know his reason for openly criticizing Tillman and anyone else who makes the decision he may very well make this weekend. It might not be a stretch to say that Florio is probably in the minority when it comes those criticisms, though.

Thumbnail photo via Facebook/Charles Tillman

Just 11 months ago, Bobby Valentine was in front of the podium at Fenway Park, speaking about how excited he was to have another chance at managing again, let alone leading the Boston Red Sox.

"This day is a special day, and it's more than a special day," Valentine said at his introductory news conference. "It's the beginning of a life that I think is going to extend beyond anything else that I thought of doing. The talent level and the players that we have in this organization, I think, is a gift to anyone. And I'm the receiver of that gift."

It was more about the man, not the team, and not the reclamation project in front of Valentine and the Red Sox. The veteran manager even felt the need to defend his character ("I'm not the monster that breathes fire that some people have referred to me as") as well as his reputation ("I am not the polarizing guy the people refer to me as").

The video board once again welcomed a new manager at Fenway Park on Tuesday, but that's where the similarities ended.

Where Valentine was happy just to be back in managing, you got the feeling Tuesday that John Farrell always expected to be back in Boston.

The Sox went in a completely direction with this manager, nabbing the man who was presumably the guy they wanted when they ended their relationship with Terry Francona in 2011. Farrell was unable to escape Toronto then, though. Valentine was supposed to bridge that gap between the two, but that bridge was faulty, collapsing early in his tenure.

The Sox went for the splash and ended up drowning. 

Now they turn to Farrell, who made his triumphant return to Boston on Tuesday afternoon. He was impressive — presidential, even — as he was reintroduced to New England. He never wavered in his tone, speaking sternly and confidently about what he can do to help the club win games.

Farrell laid out a plan, and that plan coincides with the theme of this ongoing Red Sox cleansing. When the club parted ways with Valentine, the need for a "cultural change" was stressed, and the Sox certainly have that with Farrell. 

It's fairly clear that Farrell is going to put his stamp on this ballclub. He spoke with confidence and authority on Tuesday, driving home the belief that he is a no-nonsense leader. It's safe to assume that "passive aggressive," a term used to describe Valentine, won't be placed in front of Farrell's name anytime soon.

Farrell preaches preparation — always has — and he made a point to mention that multiple times on Tuesday. It's clear that the preparation and planning has already begun. The vision that Farrell has for what he wants his team to be is clear.

He spoke of how he wants the ballclub to employ an "up-tempo, aggressive style of play." That is pivotal to changing the culture, he says.

"To play that style of game, it does create an attitude with I think is critical to win at the major league level," he said, also preaching the importance of hustle.

"That is non-negotiable. Our effort is controlled. It's controlled every night, and that is a minimum. I expect professionalism at the major league level and in this organization."

Farrell's familiarity with Boston, whether it's with Ben Cherington, the baseball ops department, the players, the fans, the market, etc., will make all of this easier.

Yet, Farrell is not taking the relationship with his players for granted. Despite his no-nonsense ways, Farrell said more than once that a team's success is ultimately rooted with the players, noting that cultivating successful relationships will lead to that success. 

"I will work my butt off to earn their trust, to earn their respect," he said. "If that's being described as a players' manager, then that's what I am."

And where Valentine faltered as a communicator, expect Farrell to flourish.

"I can't speak to what the clubhouse was last year, but I think it's important to communicate with the players,. We outline expectations, and we have to hold players accountable for what we're trying to get done," he said. "That's leading people."

The Red Sox' culture change is under way, and that was abundantly clear Tuesday. However, that cultural change is not exclusive to the manager's office. It has to continue into the offseason, where the manager-general manager relationship will be crucial.

"Ben, you said an awful lot of nice things," Farrell said upon taking the podium, "but we know it's going to come down to the quality of the players on the roster."

That much is certainly true, and there is a ton of work to be done for Farrell, Cherington and everyone else who calls Yawkey Way home.

But if Tuesday is any indication, it appears that the Red Sox are finally headed in the right direction.

The Sox have their man finally in John Farrell. The club and its new manager have decided to ditch the flirtations and commit to each other, ready to take the next step in their relationship. As they decide to become an exclusive thing, there is now plenty of pressure on plenty of people to perform in the wake of two utterly embarrassing situations.

Farrell returns to Boston as something of a savior. He's apparently coming back with antidotes to all that ails the Red Sox now. The pitching is a problem? That's fine, Farrell was the pitching coach from 2007-2010, an era better known now as "the time the pitching wasn't awful." Think you have a discipline problem in the clubhouse? No worries there, either, with the no-nonsense Farrell in the manager's office down at Fenway Park. The players didn't like the last manager? Well, here's your replacement, fellas, a guy that you know and like.

On the surface, all the problems are solved by bringing in Farrell. But in doing so, that puts an immense amount of pressure on a team that was going to feel plenty of heat anyway. But with Farrell back in the home dugout, fans and media are going to demand that things get better. Sixty-nine wins is pathetic enough, but if the Red Sox continue to falter under Farrell's guidance, things will somehow become even uglier.

Farrell will likely be feeling that pressure. His time in Toronto (though hampered by injuries, especially in 2012) was not very successful at all. Not only that, things seemed to unravel toward the end, with the Yunel Escobar incident serving as the low point, painting Farrell as a manager who at best wasn't paying enough attention and at worst had lost control. 

Yet, Farrell was still able to nab his dream job, thanks in large part to the season of ineptitude in Boston that occurred under Bobby Valentine. The pressure is on Farrell to prove that he can be a successful major league manager. Unlike Toronto, Boston provides him a familiar situation. He has two years of managerial experience under his belt. There are no excuses.

There are no excuses for a pitching staff that has underachieved while trying to navigate the dark abyss that was the Farrell-less era. Farrell's absence would not be understated by anyone. If you went by what you heard, you would assume that Farrell was the personal pitching instructor of the entire Red Sox staff since childhood.

Well, he's back now. Though he won't be working in the same role, he'll no doubt have some sort of impact on the pitching staff, and that's expected to be a big one. It has to be at this point, too. Everyone pretty much agrees that pitching has been the biggest problem for the Red Sox dating back to September of 2011. While the Red Sox may not win right away, we'll know they're going in the right direction if the pitching improves early in the Farrell (managerial) era.

"He has a great relationship with our pitchers and I think they need that," David Ortiz told The Boston Globe over the weekend. "If you can line up your pitching staff, it makes everything easier. I think Farrell will give us a chance to win games because the pitchers will produce for him."

If they don't produce for Farrell, they aren't going to produce for anyone. 

Jon Lester, who is undoubtedly the ace of the staff with Josh Beckett out of the picture, is now under pressure, too. He was 54-23 with a 3.40 ERA during Farrell's time in Boston, with a WHIP of 1.26 and a 2.67 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In the two years since, he's 24-23 with a 4.17 ERA, 1.322 WHIP and 2.43 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Clay Buchholz had the best year of his career in Farrell's last season in Boston, going 17-7 with a 2.33 ERA. He was an All-Star that season and finished sixth in Cy Young voting. Even John Lackey was OK (in relative terms at least), coming on strong in the second half on his way to throwing 215 innings.

"It's a good fit, a natural fit for us," Lester said Sunday night on NESN Daily. "I think everybody is pretty excited about, I hope everybody is excited about it and we're looking forward to a new chapter."

Ya think?

But there is no looking back. There are no more excuses. Farrell is where he wants to be, and the Red Sox pitching staff has its binky back.

Farrell knows the Red Sox and they know him. He needs to prove he can bounce back, and so does the team. In that sense, this truly is a perfect marriage.

But make no mistake that both sides are under immense pressure to make sure that this love story ends happily ever after.

The Oklahoma City Thunder forward, arguably the best basketball player (not named LeBron James) in the entire world, is having his fun infringed upon, and it's just not fair.

The NBA is taking a page out of the NFL's book, and cracking down on the fun it allows its players to have. Heaven forbid these grown men aren't able to have a little fun before they do a couple hours of a dribbling, passing, shooting and slam dunk-arooing, right?

The league is mandating that players are only allowed to take 30 seconds from the end of pregame introductions to get on the court for the opening tip. This is a grave injustice for players like Durant and other NBA stars who love to peacock around before the game begins, whether it's throwing chalk into the air (everyone's favorite pastime), doing pull-ups on the rim (working on your fitness!) or just acting like a maniac in some sort of an attempt to get jazzed up for the basketball game (concussions are nothing to joke about, you guys). 

Durant, for one, ain't happy with this development, no sirree. 

"I personally don't like it," Durant complained to NewsOK.com. "Every player in this league has routines they do with their teammates, rituals they do before the game and before they walk on the floor. The fans like it. The fans enjoy it. You see the fans mimicking the guys who do their stuff before the game. To cut that down really don't make no sense. Why would you do it? I really don't agree with it, but I don't make the rules."

KD is onto something. How the heck are NBA fans going to know the party has begun? Like, seriously. This is what we're going to be missing out as sports fans!

The horror! Can you imagine an NBA where we aren't allowed to watch Kevin Durant tie his shoes? That's what the fans want. The people who paid hundreds of dollars for those courtside seats? They didn't pay that to see Durant score 30 a game. Oh no, no … they spent that money to see Durant lace 'em up and go through orchestrated handshakes with everyone in the greater Oklahoma City area. And heaven forbid Matt Kemp is in attendance.

Sidenote: Did Kevin Durant grow up wanting to be a 6-foot-9 athletic freak who makes a living tying his shoes and slapping his hands? If his answer is yes in the slightest, then he truly deserves our sympathies. You don't want to kill someone's dreams, man.

Celtics fans should be thanking the basketball gods that David Stern and his no-fun cronies didn't come down on this a few years back. How in the world would the C's had won the NBA title in 2008 had James Posey not been allowed to hug his teammates before the game? At the very best, they would have been knocked from the playoffs in the first round, at the very worst they would all be addicted to drugs at this point.

You don't want that on your conscience, Mr. Stern. Oh no you don't.

So bravo, Kevin Durant. You are the voice of reason. Someone needed to step up. This is not communist Soviet Union. If you want to dance and slap fives before making millions of dollars to put a ball in a basket, you should be allowed to, even if it does take the better part of a half hour to do so.

Preach on and tie those shoes, my friend. It's your right. Don't let the man take all of the fun out of playing sports for a (luxurious) living. Settling for anything else would be a disgrace.

As the Yankees may recall, only one team has ever come back from down 0-3 in a playoff series in baseball history.

That won't happen again this year. New York's season is over. 

In the coming days, once that finally does happen, blame will be passed around to just about everyone, from Yankees ownership down to the batboys.

One person who should escape blame and criticism, especially once the playoff obituary is written, is manager Joe Girardi. 

Girardi is the keeper of what is supposed to be one of the best baseball teams on the planet. When you look strictly at dollars and cents, the Yankees should be the best, and they should be the best by far. However, baseball games aren't won with dollars and cents (ask the Red Sox), and they aren't won with stats, either. 

They're won by actual human beings playing their best baseball at the right time of the year. 

A manager's most important attribute is not necessarily looking at the matchups — the numbers — and making a decision off that. If that were the case, the Red Sox would be interviewing robots right now for their managerial vacancy. Stats play a roll, no doubt, but so too does feel. And there's no number to quantify that, no matter how hard you look for one.

That's why Raul Ibanez hit against Phil Coke on Tuesday night in Game 3. Some are wondering why Girardi didn't pinch hit for Ibanez with Alex Rodriguez or Nick Swisher, who had both been banished to the dugout bench. There's a reason those two All-Stars were on the bench. 

Everyone wants to point to statistics as to why Girardi should have pinch hit in that situation. They say that the left-handed Coke's numbers against right-handers are worse than they are against left-handers (shocker!), and for that reason, Swisher or Rodriguez should have pinch hit. 

OK, so the stats that really matter are Coke's lifetime numbers against right-handed hitters? On the other hand, though, it doesn't matter that Swisher and Rodriguez are hitting a combined .143 with 20 strikeouts in the playoffs. Are those not stats? Why don't those stats matter as much as the smart guys' stats? Are the stats I use too simple? What are we doing here?

The problem with stats is that they are numerical representations of averages. They can only tell you so much. But saying that Girardi should pinch hit for Ibanez because Coke's OPS is worse against right-handed hitters or whatever is way too simple. Have those people watched Rodriguez's at-bats?

Have they seen a Swisher plate appearance in any October ever? Does Swisher's career OPS in the playoffs (.584) mean anything? Which stats matter? I'm so confused. 

And if we're going to pinch hit, why not pinch hit for Robinson Cano? Is 0-for-29 (Cano's playoff streak of futility heading into his ninth-inning at-bat) not a stat? Too simple? Which stats matter?!?!

All the while, the Yankees actually scored a run in the ninth (no small feat with the way things are going right now), and they put the tying and go-ahead runs on base before Coke made an absolutely nasty pitch to end the game. So it's not like the guys Girardi sent up went down without a fight.

Girardi can only get so much information from his stats. In fact, he's been criticized in the past for living by his binders. But those Trapper Keepers can only tell part of the story. Girardi actually watches the baseball games. He speaks with the players. He gets the temperature of the clubhouse.

He manages. 

Second-guessing a manager for not playing the averages in July is one thing, but when the season is on the line, pressure kicks in. And yes, pressure is real.

No one has handled that pressure better than Ibanez in these playoffs. Hell, no one in the New York lineup has handled opposing pitching better than Ibanez. This team is hitting .200 for the playoffs. They have a .582 OPS. Runners in scoring position? They're hitting at a .196 clip.

What is Girardi supposed to do with that? He's doing all he can, and he's shown some gumption in pinch-hitting for Rodriguez as well as benching him and Swisher in Game 3. Girardi has juggled the lineup every which way to find something that works. Nothing has worked, and that has to do with the fact that the Yankees are flat-out choking, not because Girardi is making questionable decisions.

The Yankees' season is just about over, and it has so much more to do with what the Yankees have done — or more specificially haven't done — on the field than it does with what Girardi is doing — or not doing — off of it.

The good news for the Patriots is that both of those teams
play in their division.

The Patriots have been far from perfect through the first
quarter of their schedule, but you could argue that they've been better than their 2-2 record
indicates. So that's good news if you're a supporter of New England's tackle football team.

What should be even more encouraging, however, is what we were all reminded of on Sunday afternoon — the rest of the AFC East is a complete, utter and undeniable joke.

There's a three-way tie atop the AFC East now, but that won't last. Make no mistake, this is the Patriots' division to lose, and it may take an act of God for that to happen.

In the span of about three hours on Sunday afternoon, we saw the Bills and the Jets — the two teams expected to give the Patriots any sort of trouble in the division this season — just melt away.

Let's start with the Bills. Oh, the Bills. Shame on any of us for falling for the spin coming out of western New York this offseason. You know, like the spin coming from Buddy Nix, the architect of this underachieving Bills squad.

"New England, the AFC — they don't scare me," the Buffalo general manager told a Toronto newspaper just a little more than a month ago. "I think we can compete with any of 'em, and our intention is to try to win the division."

So far, that ain't true, Buddy. Sure, the Bills are tied for the AFC East lead with the Patriots, but Buffalo's two wins have come against Kansas City and Cleveland. Whoopty. Doo.

We saw the real Bills on Sunday afternoon. They fed off of a rabid Buffalo crowd (and more importantly a sloppy Pats team) early on, and then something happened. The Patriots punched back. And they punched back hard.

When that happened, it was all over for the Bills. They have talent here and there, but they showed Sunday that they just don't have what it takes to be a legitimate contender, at least not yet. Legitimate contenders show fight, and the Bills lacked mightily in that department on Sunday.

The Patriots gashed the Bills on the ground and Tom Brady hit wide-open receivers all day long. (While we're on the topic, there still isn't a member of the Bills secondary within 10 yards of Rob Gronkowski down the seam.)

The next impact play that Mario Williams makes (aside from cashing a fat check) will be the first he makes a member of the Buffalo Bills. Ryan Fitzpatrick continues to inspire no one, other than those who say he's not fit to win football games on a consistent basis at this level. Chan Gailey is the head coach of that football team. These are all recipes for an underachieving football team, which is exactly what the Buffalo Bills are for the time being.

Head south a few hundred miles, and you've got yourself the New York Jets, a train wreck of epic proportions. When they lost Darrelle Revis for the season earlier this week, their hopes of a division title all but went with his blown-out knee. On Sunday, the Jets were blasted at home by the San Francisco 49ers.

No shame in that, right? The Niners are a very good football team. The Jets were expected to lose that game. Yet, they weren't necessarily expected to get dump-trucked. That's exactly what Jim Harbaugh's boys did, crushing Rex Ryan and the Jets' souls, stomping a mud hole and walking it dry on the way to a 34-0 win. 

Mark Sanchez is a mess right now, but that may actually be the least of the Jets' problems. We saw the most Jets play in the history of the Jets when Santonio Holmes — the Jets' primary offensive "weapon" — went down with an injury, only to throw the ball back toward the middle of the field where San Fran picked it up and took it back for a touchdown.

The offensive line is nothing to write home about, and a Revis-less defense is downgraded immediately. For crying out loud, people, there are people calling for Tim Tebow to start for the Jets! They're way beyond pets' heads falling off territory. 

Add it all up, and the Jets aren't a good football team. This isn't the time for Super Bowl guarantees, but rather a rebuilding, that may very well mean Ryan isn't long for New York. That's to be decided.

So you're left with the Patriots and the Dolphins. Are we really at a point where the Dolphins may actually be the second-best team in the AFC East? Maybe not, but they've at least shown some fight this season, which is more than the Jet and Bills could say on Sunday night after losing by a combined 58 points. That is not good.

We're only four weeks into the season, but it's probably safe to start printing up the 2012 versions of these. Barring catastrophic injuries or an apocalyptic asteroid landing on the 50-yard line of Gillette Stadium, this division belongs to the Patriots. 

The Indianapolis Colts owner, who is one of the league's most outspoken head men, took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon as news started to percolate the NFL owners were nearing the end of the lockout with the game officials.

No deal is done yet, but apparently, after replacement officials embarrassed the league for an entire preseason and then almost 20 percent of the regular season, the owners finally seem willing to give at least just an inch. 

The NFL brand finally started to take a hit, and the league decided it was time to act. The league was the laughingstock of the American news cycle — not just the sports pages — following Monday night's debacle. The league's stubbornness led them to be torched on the airwaves, the blogosphere, the broadsheets and everywhere else in between by enraged fans, media members and even some players.

The league — which we are all told is the best and brightest in all the land — was nothing more than a laughingstock. 

Finally, the league decided, enough was enough. That's what it finally took for them to give a damn about the negotiation process, at least in a way that doesn't mean they can bully someone to bully them.

Yet, Irsay had the nerve to come out and belittle fans, indirectly telling them how stupid they are with a series of insulting tweets on Tuesday.

Here they are, in order of appearance. 

Your loud voices r heard about getting Refs back. We're desperately trying 2 get it done! We want a deal that improves officiating overall.

— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) September 26, 2012

Translation: Your threats to stop watching finally seem at least somewhat credible. The amount of money we could lose if that happens, has finally surpassed the chump change that ending this will cost us. 

Also: The line about wanting a deal that improves officiating overall is a total joke. If that was the case, this thing would have been solved a long time ago. That can't even be debated, right? Right? Anyone? Is this real?

I'll pay $1,000,000,000.00 n Player costs in 7 years…it's not about greed or power mongering..new initiatives 2 improve officiating is key

— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) September 26, 2012

Translation: I have so much money! I like money. I kind of want more money. OK, technically, it's not actually about greed or power mongering — until that greed or power mongering hurts our brand too much. We also finally realized that, hey, we may actually lose a football game because of these guys like those dudes from Wisconsin did on Monday. Good thing they're publicly owned, AmIRight? #songlyric

Also: What does "new initiatives two improve officiating is key" even mean? Are we calling "paying our regularly trained officials so we don't have to use ignorant replacement officials who couldn't hack it in the Lingerie Football League" code for "new initiatives 2 improve officiating?" Because if that's the case, I totally support that as the key to finding "new initiatives 2 improve officiating." Otherwise, it's just insulting rhetoric.

Let's be clear,when our NFL Fans talk,we listen..if you're unhappy,we're unhappy…we're here 2 serve U..everything we do is to please YOU!

— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) September 26, 2012

Translation: When you're really, really, really, really unhappy, we listen. Never mind that you were unhappy in the preseason. Or into Week 1. Then Week 2. And then that abomination that was Week 3. We're here to serve whatever is going to make us the most money. We realize that you, the fans, who spend way too much money and time consuming our product and the sponsors of our product, actually do have a little bit of power if our product sucks enough. So yeah, we are here to please YOU when it suits us enough.

Also: That wouldn't fit in a 140-character tweet.

Ok,we'll do Big Bucks Contest,for $1000/NFL Football,10 winners. Totaling $10,000.00,$1000 bucks each winner-Predict 1st date Reg Refs back!

— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) September 26, 2012

Translation: HERE'S A CHANCE TO WIN MONEY! NOW SHUT UP AND GO SET YOUR FANTASY LINEUPS!! WHEEEE!!

Also: At least I think that's what that means. His tweets walk the line of coherency sometimes.

Look, the NFL owners have all the right in the world to turn their truckloads of money into more money. That's America, baby. You have the right to do that. But this one blew up in your faces, and you have to accept those consequences. So don't sit here and try to blow smoke up our behinds by saying that this has been a long, officiating folly-filled journey in the quest to appease fans' desire for the best product.

It's also not the result of trying to "improve officiating." Officiating was fine. It's garbage now. Again, this makes no sense.

Football fans care way too much about football. The last few days have proved that much. But football fans aren't as stupid as owners like to think they are. The last few months have proved that much.

Photo via Twitter/@JimIrsay*

* — Duh.

It should probably also be unsurprising that the Redskins
rookie quarterback was supposedly the target of some extra-physical football
this past weekend in St. Louis.

Griffin has accused the Rams of playing dirty and taking shots at the quarterback. While the rookie wasn't willing to say the
Rams had a bounty on him, he wasn't shy about pointing fingers.

"There was some extracurricular stuff going on after the plays," Griffin told reporters at a news conference Thursday. "They were doing a lot of dirty things. I still think they have an extremely good team, that doesn't take anything away from them, but the game was unprofessional. Who am I to talk? I've barely been a pro for very long, but from what I experienced against the Saints compared to that game, it was definitely unprofessional and it does need to be cleaned up."

Welcome to the NFL, kid.

While there is no place in the NFL for Saints-like bounty programs, it should surprise no one that a team like the Rams — with a veteran NFL head coach in Jeff Fisher and a known agitator like Cortland Finnegan — would get a little physical with Griffin.

If you go back and watch the tape, there are a few instances when Griffin gets roughed up with hits that definitely toe the line of physical and dirty. Griffin himself even gets a little hot under the collar a couple of times with what he perceives to be excessive punishment.

However, that's life in the NFL, and that's life as one of the NFL's marquee draws. It hasn't gotten to the point where Griffin needs to accuse another team of playing dirty. It should be expected. It should be a sign of respect, even.

Griffin was able to do what he wanted in Week 1 against, ironically, the Saints. He tore up a depleted New Orleans organization, and told the rest of the football world that he had arrived, and he is here to win football games.

The St. Louis Rams watched tape of that for a week straight. Of course they were going to try to make life miserable for Griffin.

"I don't want to tip-toe the lines of anything that's happened with bounties or anything like that," Griffin added, "but they were definitely going after me. They made it a point, obviously, all week to hit me. Some of the shots were cheap of that nature."

Some of the shots may have been "cheap," but there is a fine line between "cheap" and "threatening." Griffin is going to have to get used to teams "going after" him. He's already one of the league's most exciting players, and he's one of the most dynamic as well.

He's also not doing himself any favors by commenting on it, either. By essentially complaining about the Rams' tactics, Griffin is at least giving off the perception that he'll be rattled by such play. Here he is, a few days later, and it's still on his mind. He could have just as easily stepped around any such questions, electing to say that he's moved on to this week, and that the Rams didn't do anything any other team would do.

Every other team, starting with the Bengals this week, is going to be looking for a new way to slow him down. That comes with the territory. How Griffin responds to this type of adversity going forward will be what defines him as an NFL quarterback for years to come.

Peter Chiarelli

The club announced that it had signed forward Brad Marchand to a four-year contract extension. Financially, Marchand's new contract will cost the B's $4.5 million per year beginning in 2013-14.

With the possibility of a work stoppage around the corner and with a bevy of contracts set to expire following the 2012-13 season, extending Marchand now makes all the sense in the world. The annual cap hit probably shades toward the higher side, but you have to assume that Marchand is still trending up in terms of talent development.

The market continues to be established with players like Marchand, as a potential lockout and eventually a new collective bargaining agreement loom. Marchand's deal, in fact, isn't unlike a few other contract extensions that have been inked in the past month or so.

Mike Fisher, Scott Hartnell and Max Pacioretty were all set to be restricted free agents following the 2012-13 season. All three now have extensions with Nashville, Philadelphia and Montreal respectively. The figures are all relatively the same for three players who are integral pieces to their teams moving forward.

Here are how the figures shape up:

Fisher: two years, $8.4 million ($4.2 million cap hit)

Hartnell: six years, $28.5 million ($4.75 million cap hit)

Pacioretty: six years, $27 million ($4.5 million cap hit)

Marchand: four years, $18 million ($4.5 million cap hit)

And here are what these players did last season:

Fisher: 24-27-51 totals, plus-11, five power play goals*

Hartnell: 37-30-67, plus-19, 16 power play goals

Pacioretty: 33-32-65, plus-2, four power play goals

Marchand: 28-27-55, plus-31, five power play goals

*Also married to Carrie Underwood. This should be noted … just because.

So what does it all mean? Well, if the Bruins are assuming that Marchand can be a 30-goal scorer type of player, this extension fits right in with other deals be given out. It may also say that Hartnell is a little bit underpaid. Then again, when you played in a lineup with the likes of Claude Giroux and Jaromir Jagr, life is a little bit easier.

The numbers are close enough when compared to each other, especially when you consider that Marchand may obviously mean more to the Bruins than other clubs.

With a player like Marchand, there are things that can't be valued strictly by stats. Marchand's role as the agitator on a rough and tough team has been detailed time and time again. He knows how to win, and he was a vital part of the Bruins team that won the Stanley Cup in 2011. 

More importantly, he gets what the Bruins are trying to do, and he fits in with the core group of players that many expect will help the Bruins contend for the next few years.

However, Bruins fans hope Chiarelli is far from done. Milan Lucic, Tyler Seguin, Nathan Horton and Tuukka Rask will all be free agents in the summer of 2013. Those players are all, in at least some capacity, important in maintaining the Bruins' core moving forward. 

The continued presentation of contact extensions — it seems like Chiarelli has a conference call every three weeks to announce these — should give reason to believe the Bruins aren't done in locking up their players.

The financials of a deal for Marchand do take a little bit of a leap of faith, but it also sends the message that the Bruins are willing to keep their best players in town into their prime. With uncertainty on the horizon, there's no denying that the Bruins are dedicated to keeping their core intact.

We've seen some of the best in Harper, and we've seen some of the worst in him all in just a small period of time. 

We got to see both the best and worst once more on Wednesday night in Miami. Harper hit two mammoth home runs to help the Nationals erase a five-game losing streak. He was also ejected in the ninth inning after grounding into a double play. He slammed his helmet to the ground out of frustration, and first base umpire C.B. Bucknor gave him the heave-ho.

See it below.

First of all, it was a garbage ejection. It looked more like Bucknor – one of the game's worst umpires — was just trying to get on SportsCenter while making an example of out of Harper. It's not unlike when Cole Hamels threw at Harper earlier in the year just because.

Harper is young, and he's a phenom. He's going to rub people the wrong way with the way he goes about his business, and it's not just people like Hamels or Ozzie Guillen in the other dugout he's going to tick off. Umpires, especially ones like Bucknor, are paying attention, too.

But expecting umpires like Bucknor to be better is like expecting the bus to be on time — it's just not going to happen. 

However, we can expect Harper to change, and he'll have to. He's a really good baseball player. The Nationals can't afford him going bonkers and being ejected. They especially can't afford that with the playoffs around the corner, where emotions will be running even higher. The Nats also can't afford Harper injuring himself while going cuckoo over something like a flyout in the third inning. The 19-year-old basically broke a bat over his face this season, and the result could have been much, much worse.

"Bryce couldn't control his emotions again," Washington manager Davey Johnson told reporters after the game."I had a little chat with him. He'll get over it. He's just a hundred-percenter. He expects great things out of himself, breaks bats, throws his helmet. He's just got to stop it. We can't afford to be losing him in a ballgame. He'll learn. He's young."

He'll figure it out eventually. He's still a kid for crying out loud. But he won't be able to take his game to the next level until he takes some of the anger out of his game. It's not condusive in a sport like baseball where failure is the name of the game and umpires have rabbit ears.

Being a "hundred-percenter" is will what make Harper one of the best players in baseball before too long. He just needs to learn where to apply that hundred percent first.

In short, they have a chance to do some real damage in this year's playoffs.

However, as everyone knows by now, there seems to be a real good chance that the Nats are going to have to chase down the pennant and the World Series without ace Stephen Strasburg.

General manager Mike Rizzo has said over and over and over and over again that he will shut down Strasburg at some point, two years removed from Tommy John surgery.

It's obvious as to why the Nationals would want to limit Strasburg. He's their best player, and he's in a crucial part of his rehab from major surgery. They have to keep an eye on the future, no doubt. 

But at the same time, shouldn't the Nationals be making a push? Rizzo's job is to put good baseball players on the field to win as many baseball games as possible. Strasburg is one of those players, and he's a darn good one at that.

Let him pitch.

The idea of an innings limit is a questionable one to begin with, too. What the Nationals should be really looking at (and it's hard to believe they're not) is the amount of pitches Strasburg has thrown. Much has been made about what the magic innings number is going to be — 160, 170, 180? — but that number only tells part of the story.

In 23 starts this season (Strasburg is slated to start Wednesday), he has thrown fewer than 100 pitches 14 times. He has three seven-inning starts in which he's thrown fewer than 100 pitches. It's not always about the amount of innings you pitch, but how many pitches you throw in those innings and how taxing those pitches may be. 

The flame-throwing right-hander threw only six innings in Boston on June 8. Yet he threw 119 pitches, thanks in large part to 13 strikeouts. That was a taxing start, to say the least, considering he had to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning, doing so by striking out Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Kevin Youkilis.

Then again, in his start prior to that gem against the Red Sox, he threw just 90 pitches in seven scoreless innings against the Braves. 

The point is, assessing a pitcher's workload purely by innings pitched doesn't begin to tell the entire story.

This season is, by far, the Nationals' best chance to win since they've relocated to D.C. These types of situations don't come along every year — once every 79 years in the Nationals' case, actually. It's not something you take for granted. You can have all the talent in the world, and well, stuff happens. Just ask the Red Sox. 

And while Strasburg may be the most important player the Nationals employ, don't they owe it to the rest of the clubhouse to give the team the best chance to win? There are 24 other players in the clubhouse who are busting their butts in an attempt to do something special. Their reward? Losing their most important piece to the World Series puzzle.

So they should be making a push for it this season, Strasburg's innings limit be damned. In the world of professional sports, you're defined by what you win. Nothing is guaranteed tomorrow, so make the most of today.

Admittedly, this is what makes being a general manager so difficult. A large part of your job is making sure your team is set up for the future. But the Nationals aren't the only ones with their eyes on the future.

You can bet Strasburg envisions himself playing a long career, whether it's in Washington or elsewhere. When it comes time for him to be a free agent, will he look back on the 2012 season and feel bitter about the fact that the organization may have cost him his best chance to win? He may. At the very least, there's no guarantee he comes back either way, especially when you consider he's represented by that Scott Boras guy. While the Nationals may be worried about Strasburg's long-term health right now, it will be Boras worrying about his agent's long-term wealth in a few years. All bets are off at that point.

So, what do the Nationals do? They must get creative. Maybe it's as simple as sitting Strasburg down for a week or two. With five off days still remaining for them in the regular season, they could certainly juggle their rotation to limit his workload further. There are options, no doubt, and not all of them center around shutting their ace down when he hits this magic number, whatever it may be.

The Nationals have a chance to win now. They need to put the pedal to the metal and go for it. And Stephen Strasburg is the man they need in the driver's seat.

When he was 21 years old, he looked to be ready to take the first step toward golf immortality in Augusta by winning the Masters. Through 63 holes, it was McIlroy's tournament. The youngster had to be seeing green. Instead, he imploded on the back nine with a meltdown that would have made Roy McAvoy in Tin Cup blush.

McIlroy could have easily stormed off the course. It would have been surmised as just a kid being a kid. Hell, Tiger Woods still gets away with it, and it's just "Tiger being Tiger." Yet, McIlroy, still a kid, took his lumps like a man in one of the most humanizing postgame interviews you'll ever see.

"It's very disappointing what happened today," he told CBS' Peter Kostis after that 2011 Masters in which he shot an 80 in that final round. "But hopefully it will build a little bit of character as well."

Or, put another way, sometimes you have to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win. 

McIlroy didn't break through for the first time on Sunday at the PGA Championship. He did that last year at Congressional when he ran away with the U.S. Open just two months after the Masters meltdown. But what he did on Sunday in South Carolina suggests that McIlroy may very well be the best player in the world right now.

That is, of course, when he puts it all together like he did in a magnificent round on Sunday. It's been an up-and-down year for McIlroy, with the emphasis on the "down" part. But when the record is written on McIlroy's 2012 season, it will say the same thing it did in 2011: major tournament champion.

That's what it's all about, isn't it? No one sits here and when looking at Woods' career remarks about how many FedEx Cups or player of the year awards he's won. It's all about the major championships. Overall wins are nice and all, but golf greatness is and always will be measured in green jackets, U.S. Open trophies, Claret Jugs and Wanamaker trophies.

McIlroy has now taken two of those home in consecutive years. Only five players have taken home two majors at a younger age, and Woods is not one of them. 

The pride of Northern Ireland, like Woods more than a decade earlier, continues to show the ability to have no regard for the rest of the field. He has that killer instinct, an attitude that can't be taught or bought. In his two major tournament wins, McIlroy has won by a combined 16 strokes. Perhaps that was one of the lessons learned on that April afternoon in Georgia last season. Instead of trying to sit on the lead, McIlroy has recently shown the newfound ability to step on the field's throat on the way to winning.

Perhaps the best part about following McIlroy's career thus far has been the grace and humility with which he's carried himself. He has shown the ability to conduct himself in a way that respects the game not only in defeat (like at the Masters last year), but also in victory. McIlroy seems to thoroughly enjoy the game of golf, as opposed to only finding joy in winning golf tournaments. You can bet there's a huge difference.

The comparisons to Woods are obvious and predictable, but also justified. Woods' career canvas is still a work in progress, but it's also a pretty lofty measuring stick. At just 23 years old, McIlroy is already staking his claim to make us forget about Woods' early-career dominance. 

That's not to say that McIlroy will eventually surpass Woods in terms of career accolades. It's probably even less likely that he'll go on a run like Woods did at the turn of the century in which he seemed to win every golf tournament he found his name on the leaderboard for.

We obviously don't know what's next for McIlroy, and we know even less about what his resume will look like when it's all said and done. What we do know, for now at least, is that he's a multiple-time major winner. That alone puts him in elite golf company.

And knowing what we already know about McIlroy, it's probably pretty to safe to assume he's far from done winning tournaments. Luckily, we'll all be able to watch him do so along the way.

We often tend to look at baseball as a game rooted in pretty complex decisions.

There are decisions to be made before every pitch. Sometimes those decisions are as simple as whether or not to throw a fastball or breaking ball. Other times, the game evolves into an ultimate chess match with one decision making all the difference in the world.

But really, baseball, as Crash Davis will tell you, is a simple game. You hit. You pitch. You catch.

And to put it simply, the Red Sox are playing some very poor baseball right now.

That won't be the first time that anyone has said such, but Thursday night's loss to the Indians was the latest smack-in-the-face reminder that Boston is simply not a good baseball team, at least not right now.

The talent is there, no doubt, but that declaration is based solely on past performances right now. The club has underperformed all season, with some of the greatest faults being exposed in this most recent tailspin.

Another glaring example of this was offerd up by Felix Doubront in the series opener. Pitching, at it's foundation is also pretty simple. You need to establish fastball command, and from there you're able to work off of your secondary stuff.

For 4 1/3 innings in Cleveland, Doubront was doing just that, taking full advantage of the potentially devastating stuff he features. He was establishing the fastball early in the count, and then coming back with the breaking stuff. Take a look at the lefty's second time through the Cleveland order. He was fearless, throwing breaking balls in any count, knowing full well that he had the fastball to fall back on.

In the fifth, that all left him. The fastball command was nowhere to be found. Gone as well was the control of his secondary pitches. The end result was a 32-pitch inning, an inning in which the Indians wrestled the lead away from Doubront and the Sox. That was a lead they'd never relinquish.

Doubront, who has now thrown 122 2/3 innings this season, had never thrown more than 25 innings at the big league level in a single season before 2012. To his credit, Doubront isn't using that as an excuse for another fifth-inning meltdown, as he did the same thing last week against the Twins.

"No, not at all," Doubront told reporters after the game when asked whether or not he was starting to hit the wall because of that drastic increase in workload.

Doubront's manager, Bobby Valentine, was a little more philosophical about his team's loss, in a way that once again left the real culprits for this loss and so many this season — the players — off the hook.

"It's a loss and it's a tough one," Valentine said moments after his team's third straight loss. "I just thought that they hit it where we weren't and we hit it where they were."

Ironically, Valentine's simple explanation doesn't tell the story. Sure, the reason for the Sox' struggles is simple enough, but it has nothing to do with bad luck, as Valentine implied. Rather, it has to do with a lack of focus and execution, as well as a tendency to shy away from the game's biggest and most important moments.

When a pitcher struggles with command like Doubront did in the fifth inning, the ball isn't going to find the gloves of the guys wearing the road greys.

Conversely, the ball didn't just find a Cleveland glove when Pedro Ciriaco made a horrendous decision to run to third on a ground ball hit in front of him to shortstop in the seventh inning. The young infielder broke the cardinal sin of base running, trying to advance with a ball hit in front of him. The end result was a double play, crushing a potential rally.

When the Red Sox walk just once against Ubaldo Jimenez, a pitcher who leads the league in walks, it's no wonder that when they put the ball in play, it finds a glove or two.

Find a glove or two, the ball did off of the Boston bats. All night long, the club desperately needed a hit when it mattered most. Alas, the Sox went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, stranding seven runners on base.

Add it all up, and it's another loss.

It's just not good enough right now for the Red Sox. At least that's the simple way of looking at things. With time running out and the club slip-sliding down the standings, that's all that really matters at this point.