Saints Land Shockey...Finally

It has been a story that wouldn't go away. The Saints have been trying to land Giants TE Jeremy Shockey since before the NFL draft and now they have. According to multiple media outlets (first reported by Fox's Jay Glazer), the Saints have landed Shockey for 2nd and 5th round picks in next year's draft. The deal is pending league approval and a physical.

The Saints apparently have been consitent with their talk about acquiring Shockey. There have even been reports that the Saints tried to get involved in the Jason Taylor trade talks to help facilitate a 3-team deal, but that fell through when Taylor was dealt to the Redskins.

I'm not sure what I think of this trade. The Saints gave up the same picks that they had offered before the draft and were turned down. Shockey will be a great weapon on this team and Brees has worked with a great tight end before in Antonio Gates of the Chargers. Will Shockey moved the Saints to the upper echelon of teams in the NFC? Time will tell, but they look to at least be the cream of the NFC South.

My main concern with this trade comes with the 2009 draft. The Saints are built to win now and are they sacrificing the future with these deals? Next year's draft will be a lean one with 2nd and 5th rounders going to the Giants, a 6th rounder going to Green Bay (trade back in the 2008 draft for Adrian Arrington) and 3rd or 4th rounder is still tied to the Jonathan Vilma deal (maybe? the compensation for that trade has been one of the most confusing discussions by Saints fans. No one really knows what was given up). So the Saints will possibly only have a 1st, 3rd/4th and 7th. That's only three selections, using the Washington Redskins draft strategy. Maybe there's some more trades in the works for draft picks with players at crowded positions (Devery Henderson? Jason David? Eric Johnson?).

Enough about the 2009 draft, this is about the present and we have one of the top 3...top 5(?) tight ends in football. Hopefully Sean Payton learned a thing or two about dealing with Shockey when he was with the Giants b/c that's the main reason New York gave him away. They didn't want to deal with the Shockey distractions all season.

If good guys like Drew Brees, Deuce McAllister and Scott Fujita can welcome him with open-arms and he becomes a part of this team and not a me-first guy, then this trade will work out great. If he comes in and complains about his contract, playing time or any number of other things, it could be a disaster.

The other factor to remember is playing in New Orleans. Not all players can do it. Shockey was last seen holding cocktails at the Superbowl. He has a party boy persona, how will that work in New Orleans? There's also injury concerns. He broke his leg late last season. Is he fully healed?

Sure there's lots of questions, but training camp is only a few days away and they'll be answered soon enough. Right now, Sean Payton landed the guys he coveted. The guy he feels can put his team over the top. The guy he feels will open up his offense even further. As a Saints fan, you have to be giddy to see what Payton will do with a legitimate tight end. The 2008 season can't get here fast enough.

Edit: It's official, per the Saints Web site. Saints fans can start getting their #88 Shockey jerseys now.

Saints start signing draft picks

With training camp only a few days away, the Saints have started signing their draft picks. Early last week, they signed 5th round DT DeMario Pressley and on Friday, they signed two more picks, 6th round K Taylor Mehlhaff and 7th round WR Adrian Arrington.

This leaves the Saints with three draft choices left unsigned, 1st round DT Sedrick Ellis, 2nd round DB Tracy Porter and 5th round OT/G Carl Nicks.

To make room for the signed players and in anticipation of signing other rookies, the Saints waived WR Titus Ryan, CB Anwar Phillips, QB Travis Lulay and DE Jeremy Geathers...we hardly knew ya. The only real disappointment from that group is not seeing Geathers, the son of former Saint Jumpy Geathers, get a shot. Ryan and Lulay were camp bodies and Phillips has lived on the Saints practice squad for a few seasons and hasn't shown much in past camps.

Its just a hunch, but look for Nicks to sign next. You rarely see holdouts from 5th round picks. Porter and Ellis will be tougher to get signed with Ellis likely missing some training camp practices. He may wait until the other top DT, former LSU Tiger Glen Dorsey (5th overall pick), signs with the Chiefs before agreeing to a deal with New Orleans.

All this contact signings and talk is pretty boring, but it means that the offseason has come to a close and football is here again.

Batman Lives up to the hype and thensome

Last night I saw The Dark Knight at the midnight opening, and it was awesome. I was worried that the movie would be a let down after months and months of hype and all the discussion of the late Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker...with him getting lots of Oscar buzz this past week.

Well, let me tell you that The Dark Knight met my expectations and then blew them out of the water. This movie rocks from the opening to the closing. Ledger is a scene stealer each time he's on screen. His Joker will go down as the best comic book villain ever to be adapted to the big screen. He was that good. Throw in James Gordon, Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Alfred and of course Bruce Wayne and you couldn't have asked for a better Batman movie. Rachel Dawes is again being talked about as a weak point in the cast, but her role is a good one and she is key to Dent's storyline. Seeing Two-Face on screen for the first time is a shocking moment in the film as the effects team held back nothing in creating the look.

This movie was violent, funny, suspenseful, disturbing and all around entertaining for two-and-a-half hours. After watching the movie, I wondered if it was better than the excellent Batman Begins, but after sleeping on it (it was 3:30 a.m. when I got home from the theatre), I can definitely say that The Dark Knight exceeds the greatness of Christopher Nolan's first Batman effort.

I can't wait to see it again.

Poll: Goblet of Fire Picked as Top HP Book

I started this blog almost a year ago and have included polls on the sidebar since the beginning. The polls have ranged from sports topics to television and movies to any other random thing I can think of to poll. But once a poll closed, I just took it down and put up the next one (mostly because I only get about 4-5 votes each time. Thank you loyal readers!). Well, I've decided to start keeping track of the poll results, so once a poll closes, I'll do a post on it and talk about how and why I voted the way I did. Without further ado, here's the first poll post.

After a few weeks and a total of 16 votes (not a huge sampling, but the blog isn't exactly USA Today), Goblet of Fire is chosen as the reader's favorite Harry Potter book. I personally voted for Half-Blood Prince, but enjoyed Goblet of Fire as well.

Here's how the poll turned out:

The Sorcerer's Stone	0 (0%)
The Chamber of Secrets	1 (6%)
The Prisoner of Azkaban	4 (25%)
The Goblet of Fire	5 (31%)
The Order of the Phoenix	2 (12%)
The Half-Blood Prince	3 (18%)
The Deathly Hallows	1 (6%)

I'm still working on Deathly Hallows and am really enjoying it, but I think Half-Blood Prince will still be my favorite. I was most disappointed with Order of the Phoenix. I just found it too long with not enough advancement of the story. I believe I read that JK Rowling would have edited it down if she had had more time with it. It is still a fantastic story, but it just takes too long to get to the good stuff.

Next poll: Your favorite Star Wars film

Chris Paul Extends Hornets Contract 3-Years

Chris Paul has agreed to a 3-year contract extension with the Hornets. Paul could have agreed to a 3-, 4- or 5-year deal, but went with the less time so he can become a free agent sooner (similar to the move LeBron James made) and to ensure that the Hornets retain his running mates, Tyson Chandler and David West, before making any further commitment.

Some Hornets fans were concerned when they heard Paul had taken the 3-year option, but I see it as a smart business move for himself and for the team. The deal is worth $68 million and he's now one of the top 5 players in the league, so endorsement deals should be coming soon, so money is not the real factor. He is the face of the Hornets and wants to make sure that the team stays competitive for the long-term. This isn't a team with a ton of long-term success. With Paul, Chandler and West, they very well could be contending for the NBA title for years to come.

In 4 years (Paul still has one year left on his rookie deal before the 3-year extension), Paul will be eligible for free agency, but the Hornets would be stupid to let him even sniff other teams. The city of New Orleans and the team's fans love CP3 and everything he's meant to reviving basketball in the Big Easy. But lets not worry about the 2012 season now. We get to follow CP3's career for at least four more years and to worry about him leaving via free agency in 2013 just shows how tormented and tortured New Orleans sports fans have been in the past. Instead of focusing on the positives like a division title, fans focus on possibly losing Chris Paul four years from now.

Hornets make logo change, new uniforms coming soon

We've reached the slowest time of year on the sports calendar. The NBA season is complete with the draft being held last week. Free agency started this week, but not much has happened other than Baron Davis going to the Clippers. NFL teams are about 3-4 weeks away from reporting to training camp, meaning we're still more than a month away from meaningless preseason games. MLB is approaching the All Star break, so pennant races should really be heating up soon, but no one really pays attention to MLB until the playoffs are approaching. Hockey... who cares (but their season's over as well)? Golf...Tiger's done for the year, so there's not much mainstream attention being given to the sport right now.

So with not much going on, the New Orleans Hornets have released an updated Hugo logo. I don't know if they officially released it, but ESPN has been using the new logo since the draft last week.

Here's the old version:


Here's the new one:


This is likely a preview of the new uniforms. The fonts have changed a bit and the colors are darker and richer. Supposedly, the darker teal is called Mardi Gras Blue, even though the Mardi Gras colors are Purple, Green and Gold. So it looks like the Hornets new uniforms colors will be mainly blue and purple. I like the look, but I hope they don't get confused with Dallas or Utah, who have similar color schemes.

Other changes include NOLA on the bug's chest instead of New Orleans, which was so small before that it was hard to read. The Hornets head has been changed as well with a new grimmace on his face, updated eyes & antennea, different wings and colored in shoes.