Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 1-9-18

Sports
Free Baseball/ Softball Camp
Jameis Winston Turns 24 With Records In Hand
The Peter J. Mulry Foun- dation is hosting “Stars of the Future: Life Skills Through Sports” - FREE baseball/softball camp for girls and boys ages 7-13.
The camp will be held Saturday, January 13, 2018. Check-in/breakfast is at 8 a. m. and the camp begins at 9 a. m. and continues until 1 p. m. It’s being held at Tampa Catholic High School Sports Complex, Rome Ave., south of Wishart.
Instruction is provided by current and former major and minor league and college players and coaches. Life skills presentations empha- sizing academics, substance abuse prevention, and posi- tive values will be featured. A
parents program is also pro- vided. Kids are requested to bring their gloves and bats.
Highlights of the camp: Participants get free break- fast, t-shirt, backpack, book, and autographs from base- ball stars. Appearances by Tampa’s Dennard Spann, now playing for the Tampa Bay Rays, and Cleveland In- dians starting pitcher Car- los Carrasco, the American League 2017 wins leader.
Also appearing: Tampa Bay Rays personnel: De- wayne Stats, Orestes De- strada, Raymund and DJ Kitty, and Rays Spirit Girls.
Advance on line registra- tion is at: peterjmulry.org.
Jameis Winston turned 24 on Saturday, raising this little dilemma: What do you get the man who already has 69 NFL touchdown passes?
Prior to Saturday, Win- ston had been averaging three NFL touchdown passes per year he's been alive, as long as you round that last year down. That wouldn't be saying much if Winston was 30,oreven25,buttogetto69 TDs while still calling yourself a 23-year-old is a remarkable
JAMEIS WINSTON
achievement. One of a kind, in fact.
Buccaneers' star quarterback, has more touchdown passes before age of 24 than any other player in NFL history. His 69th score came on the Buccaneers' last offensive snap of the 2017 season, a bold 39-yard strike to rookie wide receiver Chris Godwin last Sunday to beat the New Orleans Saints, 31-24. That broke Winston's tie with a Pro Football Hall of Famer andputhimatthetopofa pretty heady list of names.
Winston, the Tampa Bay
Updated NFL Playoff Bracket: Divisional-
NFL Looking Into Panthers' Handling Of Cam's Protocol
Wild-card weekend is, in many ways, a setup for the best weekend of the NFL calendar.
Now that the field is set for next weekend's divisional- round -- when the league's top eight teams will scramble to advance to the conference championships -- let's reset the playoffs.
AFC
No. 5 Tennessee Titans at No. 1 New England Pa- triots
Saturday, Jan. 13: 8:15 p.m. ET, CBS | Game HQ
Tennessee has already ad- vanced further than most thought after upsetting the Chiefs in the wild-card round. The Titans did, however, demonstrate a winning playoff formula: A reliance on the power running of tailback Derrick Henry and the im- provisation of quarterback Marcus Mariota.
Some observers were rat- tled by a round of sub-Hall of Fame play from quarterback Tom Brady, who threw inter- ceptions in five consecutive late-season games. But re- member the big picture: In a league with no perfect teams, the Patriots have lost only once since Oct. 1. Brady has had an extra week to nurse shoulder and Achilles injuries, and tight end Rob Gronkowski is as healthy as he has ever been in January.
This is a game the Patriots should and almost certainly will win. An AFC Champi- onship Game rematch looms against the Steelers.
No. 3 Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 2 Pitts- burgh Steelers
Sunday, Jan. 14: 1:05 p.m. ET, CBS | Game HQ
After outlasting the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, the Jaguars drew an interesting divisional- round matchup. They more than handled the Steelers in Week 5, intercepting quarter- back Ben Roethlisberger five times in a 30-9 victory at Heinz Field.
Promising playoff paths have crashed for the Steelers because of injuries to one or more of their Big 3: Roethlis- berger, wide receiver Anto- nio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell. So all eyes will be on Brown, whom the Steelers are hoping can return after missing the final three regular-season games with a calf injury.
It’s not easy to envision Bortles winning a road play- off game, but any team with a defense as sharp as the Jaguars' unit has the chance to at least keep it close. The Steel- ers are and should be the fa- vorites.
NFC
No. 6 Atlanta Falcons
at No. 1 Philadelphia Ea- gles
Saturday, Jan. 13: 4:35 p.m. ET, NBC |
After some early-season struggles, the Falcons now have the look of a low-seed that no team wants to play. They've won seven of their past nine games, and Saturday night's choke-out of the high- scoring Los Angeles Rams demonstrated how Atlanta can win a defensive/ball-posses- sion game.
These are teeth-grinding times in Philadelphia, where the season-ending knee injury of quarterback Carson Wentz has stunted anticipa- tion about a Super Bowl run. The Eagles' offensive scoring output dropped by almost half
in the three games backup Nick Foles has started -- from 28.3 points to 15.7 points per game -- and it's fair to question whether they can navigate the playoffs without Wentz.
It's pretty wild but really not debatable that a No. 6 seed opened as a 2.5-point favorite in a playoff game at the No. 1 seed. But it's an appropriate recognition of the Falcons' winning formula and concern about the Eagles' post-Wentz drop-off.
No. 4 New Orleans Saints at No. 2 Minnesota Vikings
Sunday, Jan. 14: 4:40 p.m. ET, Fox |
After an 0-2 start, the Saints have put together their best team since winning Super Bowl XLIV in 2009. That was also the year they defeated the Vikings in the NFC Champi- onship -- the game that prompted the NFL’s Bounty- gate investigation.
Minnesota had the NFL’s best defense this season, whether you measure by points allowed per game (15.8), yards (275.9) or third- down percentage (25.2). Four- teen of the Vikings' 16 opponents managed less than 20 points. Well-rounded and healthy, the unit is poised to control the NFC playoffs.
All you need to know about the teams' Week 1 matchup is that Sam Bradford threw for 346 yards and three touch- downs in the Vikings' 29-19 victory. Both teams have un- dergone significant changes since then, and this matchup could be the best game of the 2017 playoffs.
This game is a toss-up. But the Vikings defense should be the winning formula.
The Carolina Panthers' handling of Cam Newton's fourth-quarter injury has drawn the attention of the league.
Newton exited Carolina's wild-card loss to the New Or- leans Saints after taking a hit to the head in the fourth quarter. Newton attempted to walk off the hit, but instead sat down on the field near Carolina's sideline and was attended to by team doctors. The QB was then evaluated for a concussion in the med- ical tent and quickly cleared to return.
Cam's return following a quick tent visit raised eye- brows, considering the NFL's recent modifications to the concussion protocol. These adjustments, implemented on Dec. 11, state that "a player who stumbles and/or falls to the ground when trying to stand, unrelated to an ortho- pedic injury, should be sent directly to the locker room to undergo the standard locker room exam.
"The NFL said in a state- ment acquired by NFL Net- work Insider Ian Rapoport, "We are in contact now with the Panthers' medical staff and we will not comment fur- ther until those conversations are completed."
Panthers coach Ron Rivera told reporters that
CAM NEWTON
Cam was taken into the med- ical tent only as a precaution and that team doctors were more focused on Newton's eye.
"He actually got poked in the eye," Rivera said of Cam after the loss. "They took him in there as a precautionary just to make sure, but when he was sitting on the ground, they were trying to wipe whatever when he got popped. So that's what that was."
Newton seconded his coach's explanation.
"There were precaution- ary concussion protocol things that happened, but it wasn't my head. It was my eye," Newton told reporters. "My helmet had come down low enough over my eyelid, and it got pressed on a player's stomach, I believe. I thought that maybe some- body had stuck a finger in my eye. ..."
Round Matchups, Analysis, More
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