Valley Sports

Is it just me, or are there more unbelievably bad NFL teams this season than ever before?
The Oakland Raiders won’t win another game this season. The St. Louis Rams are unwatchable. The Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns on Sunday may have played the worst game of the past 20 years this past Sunday. Cleveland quarterback Derek Anderson completed 2 of 17 passes, and the Browns won!
I haven’t even mentioned the winless Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Usually, there’s two or three teams that are the dregs of the league. This year, we could have six or seven clubs that fail to win four games.
Conversely, there will be more clubs that finish with at least 12 wins because they have so many sure things on the schedule. The Denver Broncos, for example, play Oakland and Kansas City twice. The Saints can feast four times on the Buccaneers and fading Carolina Panthers.
The disparity makes for some dreadful Sundays. Who wants to watch the Giants drill the Raiders so badly that Eli Manning doesn’t even play in the second half?
At least the Cardinals, even with all their inconsistencies, have a chance to win almost every week. That’s more than you can say for a lot of NFL teams.

Danny Sullivan will remain Arizona State’s starting quarterback for Saturday’s game against Washington State, coach Dennis Erickson said Monday.
Erickson said Sullivan “did some awfully good things” in last Saturday’s 28-17 loss to Oregon State. “He threw it and successfully managed the game pretty well. He did nothing in that game to take away from being the starter in my opinion.”
Erickson also pointed out that, “Sullivan didn’t lose the football game by any means. Everybody was involved with that.”
Sullivan was 32 of 58 for 338 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.
Erickson didn’t rule out the possibility of freshman Brock Osweiler playing against the Cougars this Saturday. He said he would make that decision later in the week.
Sullivan was much more composed Monday than he was after the Oregon State loss. He said he received moral support from family members, friends and teammates the last 48 hours and paid no attention to what was being written or said about him.
Sullivan was appreciative of Erickson’s support - “it means a lot,” - but acknowledged that he has to improve to hold onto the starting job.
“Am I going to pick myself up and get better or continue not to play the way I want to play?” he said. “On crucial downs I’m not helping the football team win. It’s frustrating. That’s not the way I want to play. That’s not the way I intended it to be. I’ve got to get better and help this team.”
Erickson said he knows fans are clamoring for Osweiler but that, “when it comes to football decisions, I think I’ll make those.”
In other ASU news:
Defensive end Dexter Davis, the only player in the country to have double-digit sacks the last two years, doesn’t have a sack after four games this season.
Erickson said teams are keeping a tight end or running back in to help block Davis.
“If I was playing us, that’s what I would do,” he said.
Erickson said he doesn’t expect to get injured linemen Matt Hustad (knee) or Zach Schlink (knee) back this week, but center Garth Gerhart (toe) will play, and safety Ryan McFoy (foot) should be back as well.

Just returned to the office from Suns Media Day and thought I’d pass along a few notes:
The most interesting news was coach Alvin Gentry saying that if the season started today Channing Frye would be the starting center rather than Robin Lopez.
The Suns think Frye’s outside shooting touch will help open the floor for Amare Stoudemire, who will have more freedom to play in the lane with Shaquille O’Neal gone.
Does that mean the Suns are down on Lopez? They say they aren’t, but think about it. The team’s needs on the interior — defense and rebounding — are supposed to be Lopez’s strengths, yet Frye likely will start at center.
The Suns are going back to the run-and-gun style that defined them under Mike D’Antoni, but Gentry insisted, “We’re going to be a little more demanding defensively.”
“We don’t have to be Cleveland or San Antonio because we are good offensively,” he said. “But we have to be more consistent.”
Hmmm. Seems like we’ve heard that before.
One interesting note is that Gentry has made Stoudemire a tri-captain along with Steve Nash and Grant Hill. The Suns want Stoudemire to grow up and take some responsibility for how the team is playing, and they’re hoping being named a captain will nudge him in that direction.
Finally, general manager Steve Kerr said he never considered resigning despite suffering through “by far” the worst season of his professional life. Kerr was barbecued for some of his moves and fired his good friend, Terry Porter, after just 51 games.
“It was difficult,” Kerr said … “I definitely deserve a lot of the blame. But part of the job is accepting that and moving forward.”

Just settled into the pressbox here at the University of Georgia. It’s a great environment. The stadium sits smack dab in the middle of campus, and folks were out here tailgating when we drove up more than four hours before the game.
One odd sight: The biggest tailgating spot is a cemetery just east of the stadium. This is college football country, however, so the dead probably don’t mind.
Walked onto the field - before getting kicked off by a security guard - and took a picture of UGA’s doghouse and the statue of UGA behind the east end zone.
A couple of southern things we saw on the way into town: A Smoke and Choke shop that featured anything from incense to bongs and red brick, colonial-style homes everywhere.
Now for the weather forecast: It’s just spitting right now, but a Georgia official said two storms are converging on the area and thunderstorms are expected tonight. If it’s real wet, turnovers could be a problem for both teams.

As you might expect, Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said Wednesday he has no problems with quarterback Kurt Warner or the amount of touches he’s gotten in Arizona’s first two games.
Fitzgerald’s supposed frustration became public Sunday when his younger brother, Marcus, tweeted that Larry was angry he wasn’t getting the ball more against Jacksonville. Fitzgerald has 10 catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns in the Cardinals’ first two games.
“Anybody who knows me and Kurt knows that he’s my closest friend on the team,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s always been there for me and I’ll always be there for him long after I can’t catch or run anymore.”
Fitzgerald said he chuckled when he heard about Marcus’ tweets Sunday, saying his brother “does what he wants to do.”

Don’t be surprised if the Arizona Diamondbacks eat the final year of Eric Byrnes’ three-year, $30 million deal and release him in the offseason.
Arizona’s top four outfielders are set next year, assuming Conor Jackson has recovered from Valley Fever: Jackson will play in left, Chris Young in center and Justin Upton in right. Gerardo Parra would be the fourth outfielder.
From the standpoint of having as much versatility as possible on a 25-man roster, it makes more sense for the Diamondbacks to use, say, Ryan Roberts, as a super utility player who can play both the infield and outfield than it does to keep Byrnes.
Could the D-Backs try to trade Byrnes’ bad contract for another bad contract? Possibly. But those deals are hard to make, particularly when the contract coming back would have to be for just one year.
The Diamondbacks will take a lot of grief if they release Byrnes. But it would be the right thing to do.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Larry Fitzgerald’s younger brother, Marcus, disparaged Kurt Warner in a series of tweets Sunday because Warner wasn’t getting the ball often enough to Fitzgerald in the Cardinals’ victory over the Jaguars.
In one tweet, Marcus called Warner an “old (expletive) man.” Then, after the game, this was his tweet: “Just got off the phone with my brother. he’s happy about the win. But PISSED he didn’t get the ball thrown 2 him much!”
As you might imagine, the internet is now awash with rumors about a potential problem between Warner and Fitzgerald.
My take: It’s much ado about nothing.
Yes, I do believe Fitzgerald was frustrated on Sunday. I watched him walk off the field slowly, his head down, after Warner didn’t get him the ball on one play. When I asked Fitzgerald about it after the game, he smiled and said he was just “tired” from the Florida sun and humidity.
Right.
That said, I don’t believe there will be any lingering problems between the two. For one thing, Fitzgerald has too much respect for Warner. This isn’t Terrell Owens banging on Jeff Garcia or Tony Romo. Fitzgerald genuinely likes Warner and appreciates what he’s meant to the Cardinals.
Also, Fitzgerald isn’t a diva. Does he get frustrated when the ball isn’t thrown to him? Sure. But he’s not going to whine about it publicly or call Warner out.
Fitzgerald will get his chances, more than likely this Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts. Until then, he needs to say the right things and remind his little brother criticizing a teammate via Twitter isn’t real smart.

An injury update on the Cardinals’ wide receivers:
Anquan Boldin practiced Wednesday, and coach Ken Whisenhunt said he didn’t further aggravate the hamstring injury that slowed him against the San Francisco 49ers.
Boldin is expected to play Sunday in Jacksonville.
Steve Breaston (knee), on the other hand, was limited to the walk-through portion of practice, and Whisenhunt said the team would be “smarter” in determining Breaston’s availability Sunday.
Breaston practiced the week leading up to the 49ers game, and Arizona expected him to play. But when he couldn’t go, Boldin had to play despite his balky hamstring and the receivers’ assignments were changed.
Whisenhunt also said that Early Doucet (rib) practiced, and it’s possible that Doucet could play against the Jaguars.

Arizona State basketball coach Herb Sendek scored a recruiting coup Wednesday when 6-foot-5 guard Keala King, considered the best prospect in the state of California, committed to the Sun Devils.
King, from Mater Dei High School in southern California, is ranked by Rivals as the 25th overall prospect of the 2010 class. ESPN lists King as the 53rd overall prospect.
King had scholarship offers from Stanford, Arizona, California and Kentucky, as well as other schools.
King, a southpaw, told ASUdevils.com that he was impressed by how Sendek used James Harden, another left-hander.
“I was looking at James on the film and it’s like a lot the stuff he can do I pretty much can too,” King said. “He’s a little stronger than me and maybe a littler more polished at some of the things but I see myself as Arizona State style player. It’s a school and a system that I think I’d do well in and that made me feel really good.”

Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin, nursing a strained right hamstring, didn’t participate in Wednesday’s practice, diminishing his chances of playing in the season opener Sunday against San Francisco.
Boldin hasn’t practiced in three weeks. While attending the Diamondbacks-Dodgers game at Chase Field Tuesday night, however, he told Fox Sports Net that he planned to play on Sunday.