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After an initial agreement to meet by his agents that was followed by 24 hours of speculation that the Jets were on pace to make Bill Cowher their next head coach, the former Steelers coach told the Jets, in effect, thanks, but no thanks. Cowher will not be the next head coach of the New York Jets. "After reaching out to Coach Cowher's representatives, we were informed tonight that he is not a candidate for the position," Jets spokesman Bruce Speight told the Associated Press on Tuesday night ( ESPN ). So, where does this leave the Jets? In panic mode, one would think. The Jets will now turn to other options like Giants Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnoulu, who has gained popularity in New York for his part in the Giants Super Bowl title last season but has no pervious head coaching experience. The Jets could also look within to Brian Schottenheimer, who has drawn the ire of Jet fans for his rather stale offensive play-calling. The Jets could also look to Brian's f...

According to New York sports radio WFAN, the Jets have made contact with Bill Cowher's agent and the two sides have agreed to meet and discuss the coaching vacancy. It is not known what demands Cowher has for the job, i.e. money, years, front office positions; but, those issues will be brought up when the two sides meet. According to ESPN, Cowher wants to have power in deciding who the General Manager will be, and the Jets, apparently. are more than willing to accomidate his desires. ESPN also reports that Cowher may address the situation on Sunday when he goes on the air for CBS's coverage of the Miami Dolphins/Baltimore Ravens Wild Card game. Other candidates include Giants Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnoulu and former Chargers Head Coach Marty Shottenheimer, whose son, Brian, is the Jets Offensive Coordinator.

It is offically over for Eric Mangini. The young Head Coach, who was the toast of the town in his first season, is now looking for new work after his Jets collapsed down the stretch despite starting 8-3, resulting in Magini's firing . Mangini became iconic for his unemotional and lifeless stare on the sidelines, as he failed to motivate his ball club when he needed to most. The 2008 season was a huge gamble for Mangini and company. They got rid of the albatros that was Chad Pennington and his ineffective arm in favor of the Hall of Fame arm of Brett Favre. Ironically, the Jets got a tired and selfish old man in Favre and watched Pennington lead the Dolphins to the AFC East division title. Clearly, the Jets have a lot of work to do. Not only will they need a new coaching staff, but they may have to rip apart the roster. Favre is likely gone, and Laverneous Coles might be next after he became a clubhouse cancer in refusing to cooperate with the aging quarterback. Overall, Mangini we...

If Woody Johnson does indeed decide to drop the axe on coach Eric Mangini after a disapointing 9-7 finish to a season that was supposed to be a whole lot more, here is a list of possible replacements. Most of these coaches are probably pipe dreams, but they must be considered nontheless. 1) Bill Cowher: Former Steelers coach is rumored to be talking to the Browns about their head coaching job, but if he decides to stay closer to family (his daughter goes to colleg e in New Jersey), he could opt to come to the Garden State. Cowher would bring instant credibility to any franchise and would demand that his players show pride and heart each and every week of the season, even if they don't make the playoffs. Cowher has spent the last two years working for CBS in New York as a part of the NFL Today pre-game show, so he is no stranger of what makes New York tick. 2) Brian Billick : If Gang Green loses out on Cowher, they should look at Billick. Billick won a Super Bowl his first season i...

In an intersting blog from Yahoo.Sports.com, there is a power struggle at the top of the Miami Dolphins organization, and it could affect whether Bill Parcells stays in South Beach. Miami owner Wayne Huizenga is expected to transfer control of the team to new owner Stephen Ross, and both are hoping that Parcells does not decide to opt out of his contract and take his money because of the dramatic change. Parcells has a four year contract with Miami, and if he decides to leave after the 2008 season, he will collect $9 million up front. Parcells has easily been the executive of the year after reshaping the Dolphins in his image and sending them to the top of the AFC East. In fact, in all of Parcells' inaugural seasons, he has never had a year this good. In his first year with the Giants, he went 3-12-1. In his first year with New England, he made it to the playoffs as a wild card at 10-6. In 1997, his first with the Jets, he lost the season finale to Detroit, costing the Jets a play...

DOLPHINS 24 JETS 17 If someone walked up to you on August 7 and told you that the Brett Favre would bomb with the New York Jets, and that Chad Pennington would go to Miami and seek and get revenge on the Jets for letting him go, you probably would think this person was a little crazy. It was not that long ago that New York and New Jersey were giddy over the fact that the Jets had acquired Favre from the Green Bay Packers. Everyone expected Gang Green to finally break the chains of futility and make that oh so improbable Super Bowl appearance. In the end, it is 40 years and counting for Gang Green. The Jets showed absolutely no heart, no guts, no feeling whatsoever in their 24-17 debacle against the Dolphins Sunday evening. Favre was terrible, underthrowing and overthrowing his receivers. The only time he hit someone in the numbers for a reception it was Dolphins defensive end Phillip Merling who dashed into the end zone to give the Fish a 14-6 lead. Favre, who earlier in the week soun...

VIKINGS 20 GIANTS 19 What can the Giants take away from their regular season finale against the Vikings? Nothing, really. The game meant nothing to Big Blue and they played like that, with most of their starters sitting out the contest. Still, the Giants had a chance to win this game. They grabbed a 16-10 lead in the third quarter when David Carr hit Domenik Hixon in the endbzone from 23 yards out. The Giants built a 19-10 but watched it melt away as Minnesota stormed back in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Travaris Jackson hit a wide open Bernard Berrian for a 54 yard touchdown to get the Vikings to within 19-17. The Giants had a chance to put the game away late in the fourth, but John Carney's field goal was wide of the field goalpost, giving Minnesota the ball with great field position. The Vikings drove the ball methodically to the New York 32 yard line, then settled for a Ryan Longwell field goal to win the game. The victory gives Minnesota the NFC North division title. As fo...

Wtih one week to go, there is still some ambiguity as to who will make the NFL playoffs in 2008-2009. Here are the final formuli : AFC EAST: Dolphins win against the Jets and they are the division champs. Even if the Patriots beat Buffalo to improve to 11-5, the Dolphins own a better conference record than New England. If the Jets beat the Dolphins and the Bills beat the Patriots, then the Jets win the AFC East at 10-6. If the Patriots win against the Bills, and the Jets defeat the Dolphins the Patriots make it to the playoffs at 11-5. AFC Wild Card Sixth Seed: The Ravens become the sixth seed if they beat the Jaguars, or the Patriots and Jets lose their games. The Jets become the wild card if they beat Miami, and Baltimore loses. The Patriots become the wild card if they beat Buffalo and Baltimore and the Jets lose their respective games. AFC West: Broncos and Chargers will square off in an AFC West Title game to determine the division winner. The winner will be the AFC's number f...

It amazes me how fast the NFL regular season passes. For seemingly a minute, it is week one or two, and before you blink, it is Thanksgiving and the season begins to wind down. It has been a wacky season this year. The AFC has seen some dramatic changes with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sidelined for the year with a knee injury and slow starts by the Colts and Chargers. Couple that with Brett Favre's rise and fall with the New York Jets, and Chad Pennington's rebirth with the Miami Dolphins. In the NFC, the Giants have picked up where they left off in 2007, winning 12 games and capturing the conference's number one playoff seed. Meanwhile, likely challengers like the Cowboys, Packers, Redskins, Seahawks and Eagles have all had mediocre to bad seasons. New faces in Atlanta and Arizona have revitalized those franchises. Now the playoffs are upon us, and in five weeks America will know who is the best of the best. GIANTS (12-3) @ VIKINGS (9-6): Much has been made about the ...

So this is Christmas. It has been a wild and wacky year in sports in 2008 for New York teams, so it's time to see who has been naughty and who has been nice this year. Good: Tom Coughlin : Giants head coach has become the toast of town after taking Big Blue to a World Championship in the 2007-2008 season and is well on his way to doing it again in 2008-2009. The Giants are 12-3 and the number one seed in the NFC. Eli Manning: Giants quarterback went from chump to champ in a year's time. As early as last November, people were ready to run Manning out of town, but after coming to form in last year's playoffs and performing at a Pro Bowl level this year, Manning is clearly one of the league's best quarterbacks. Brandon Jacobs : Has had a terrific season this year with Big Blue. His impact on the Giants can be summed up in the last two weeks. Without him, the Giants have little punch on offense, i.e. the G-Men's dismal effort against Dallas. With him, the Giants are ...

Six years ago, the Jets were in a very familiar position. They needed to win their season finale and pray to the gods of football that the New England Patriots would defeat the Miami Dolphins in order to give the Jets the division title. The Jets were led by Chad Pennington in that season, his first as a starter. Pennington helped resurrect a Jets team that started 2-5 that year to an 8-7 record. They had to square off against the Green Bay Packers and some quarterback named Brett Favre in that season finale -- a scenerio that did not look too favorable for Gang Green. Giants Stadium was packed that cold evening; on the jumbotron, minutes before the Jets/Packers kick off, a live feed appeared of the Pats/Dolphins game. Adam Vinatieri kicked the game winning field goal for New England, killing Miami's postseason dreams and giving the Jets hope. Giants Stadium roared with pleasure as the score was announced. The Jet players fed off that energy and beat up Favre and Packers, 42-17. P...

After much deliberation and speculation that first baseman Mark Teixeria would sign with either the Washington Nationals or the Anahiem Angels, or the Boston Red Sox, it is the New York Yankees who came up as winners in the Teixeria sweepstakes. According to Sports Illustrated's and WFAN's Jon Heyman, the Yankees have signed Tiexiera to a eight year $180 million contract, the richest contract for a first baseman in history. Teixeria hit .308 with 33 homeruns and and 121 RBI and 102 runs scored last year, splitting time with the Atlanta Braves and Angels. He is a lifetime .290 hitter, with a gold glove to add to his trophy case. He is only 28 years old and will be a Yankee until the age of 36. The Yankees are now the team to beat in MLB.

It is time for the Jets to cut ties with Shaun Ellis once and for all. After the Jets disgraceful 13-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, the defensive end decided to retaliate against a couple of drunk Seattle fans snowball tossing by throwing a gigantic ice ball onto top of a fan. Apparently fans were throwing snowballs at the Jets as they walked off the field after the game. There is no excuse for what the fans did to the Jets, but the fact that Ellis had the audacity to pick up a chunk of ice and snow and drop it on paying specators is an absolute joke. Ellis was fined $10,000 by the NFL for the fiasco. Watch VIDEO Watch Alternate VIDEO (close up view)

One of the most important concepts in building a winning team in any sport is chemistry. It is the one science that is the difference between winners and losers, and the New York Mets ought to know a lot about that. For the better part of the past two years, fans have heard rumors that the clubhouse had been divided among the players. For example, in 2007 Paul Lo Duca made an insulting comment about the Hispanic players in the room when he told the media that they, too, spoke English. Then last year, Billy Wagner wondered why the media kept interviewing him and proceeded to throw his Hispanic teammates, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes, under the bus, when he remarked, "Oh, gee, what a shock they are not here" in frustration that he had to answer for them. It is this divide that might have spelled doom for the Mets in both 2007 and 2008, and in 2009 Manager Jerry Manuel has to ... better yet ... must find a way to get these players to work together and develop c...

Here are some scary highlights Jet fans. Take a view of the death of the Jets 2008 season, a 13-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. WATCH MOVIE ! It will not be a Merry Christmas for coach Eric Mangini and company, who will need to beat the Dolphins and hope and pray that the Patriots and Ravens lose to inferior opponents next Sunday.

Here are some great highlights of the Giants come from behind victory against the Carolina Panthers from Sunday night, December 21, 2008. It was a classic game between two outstanding ball clubs. I hope both teams find a way to meet up again either in the divisional or championship round of the playoffs because if this game is any indication, America will be in for an all-out brawl. WATCH MOVIE!!

GIANTS 31 PANTHERS 28 OVERTIME Champions are not always great; they are only great when the have to be. That is the phrase that best describes the 2008 New York Giants. After a PR disaster that was the Plaxico Burress/Antonio Pierce mess, and a two game losing streak, the Giants got right back on track with a classic 31-28 overtime victory over the Carolina Panthers. The win secured home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs for Big Blue, meaning that the next time the Giants hit the road after their game in Minnesota, it will have to be in Tampa Bay for Super Bowl XLIII. Unlike last year, the Giants will play all their playoff games at Giants Stadium this January. The Giants did not get off to a good start in this one. The Panthers had their way with the Giants in the first half, as DeAngelo Williams and Jonahtan Stewart ate up the Giants defense, something we have not seen from any Giant opponent this season. Williams rushed for 103 yards in the game with four touchdowns. Meanw...

SEAHAWKS 13 JETS 3 If we learn anything from this disastrous Jets season it is this: money doesn't always buy happiness. It is well documented that the Jets spent more than $140 million to reshape the franchise in the off-season and shipped out Chad Pennington in favor of Brett Favre. Expectations were high; people wanted a division title and a deep playoff run. Then, after a terrific 8-3 start, the fans were dreaming of the Super Bowl, and a possible matchup with their stadium mates the Giants. That was w hat it was ... a pipe-dream. The Jets in 2008 are offically dead! After a dismal and heartless 13-3 loss to the 4-11 Seattle Seahawks, the Jets can kiss their playoff dreams goodbye, because both the Patriots and Dolphins won, making things very difficult for New York. The Jets now have to win against Miami and hope that the Buffalo Bills come up with enough of an effort to beat the Patriots. If that scenerio plays out, the Jets would win the division at 10-6. That is highly unli...

There is not much left to say about this 2008 season. It has been very special; we have seen a lot of upstarts, like the Dolphins and Falcons, and we have seen the old guard teams, like the Colts and Patriots, stumble out of the gate but still find a way back into post season play. Now let the REAL games begin. DOLPHINS (9-5) @ CHIEFS (2-12): The suddenly mighty Fish have been winning games by the skin of the ir teeth this season. Two points over Seattle and Oakland, four points over St. Louis and five points over San Francisco. A bounce here and there and the Dolphins could be 5-9 and not 9-5. Still, you have to give credit to Chad Pennington for finding a way to lead a bunch of no-names and never-will-be's to this very point. They are two wins away from a division title, and with the Jets falling all over themselves, Miami can taste the booze. But don't get too ahead of yourselves. The Chiefs have played tight games all year, losing most of them. Kansas City has lost six ga...

One more wrinkle to keep track of this week as the Jets head to the northwest and Miami plays in Kansas City and New England plays host to Arizona: even if Miami and New England should lose and the Jets win this week, the Jets do not clinch a division title. Here's why: The Jets are currently 7-4 in conference, while Miami is 6-4 and New England is 6-5. A Jet win in Seattle does not count as a conference victory since the Seahawks are in the NFC. So, if the above-mentioned scenerio played out, the Jets would be 7-4 against the AFC, while Miami and New England would both be 6-5 going into the final week. The Jets will have to win against Miami to win that tiebreaker, giving them a 8-4 in confernce record over Miami's 6-6. If Miami should beat the Jets, giving both a 7-5 AFC record, the Dolphins would win the division because they have an edge in victories over common opponents. The Jets lost to San Francisco, Oakland and San Diego. Miami has victories against each of those three...

Shield the eyes of your children Giants fans; here is a highlight, or better yet, lowlight video of the Giants debacle in Dallas on Sunday Night. The Cowboys beat the Giants 20-8. CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO !

After NFL.com went through a period of three weeks where their NFL Replay - Recutter tool was not saving its videos properly, I have finally been successful in making a new highlight video for the Jets. This one covers the improbable victory against the Buffalo Bills from Sunday. CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO !

Even if New York is not represented at all in the Super Bowl this year, it certainly will be in the Pro Bowl. Talk about a downer. 13 total players from both the Giants and Jets have been selected to the meaningless post-Super Bowl scrimmage in Hawaii. The Giants sent only one Pro Bowler last year in their Super Bowl season; this year they are sending six. Offensive linemen Chris Snee and Shaun O'Hara will be there. Snee will start at guard, while O'Hara will be a reserve center. Eli Manning made it to his first pro bowl as a backup quarterback. It marks the first time that both Eli and Peyton Manning will square off in the Pro Bowl, but if you ask both, they would rather square off in the Super Bowl. Justin Tuck who has had a monster season at defensive end in place of Michael Strahan and Osi Umienyora, will be there as well. Punter Jeff Feagles and kicker John Carney will lead the NFC's special teams. As for the Jets, they didn't send a single player to Hawaii ...

Here are the formuli that could get the Jets into and out of the playoff party this season: 1) If the Jets win against Seattle and Miami, they win the AFC East based on a better conference record (8-4) than the New England Patriots, even if New England wins out as well. 2) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins win out and finish at 11-5, the Jets would be 10-6, or 9-7, and probably out of the playoffs. Both New England and Miami would make the playoffs, with the Dolphins as a divison winner and the Patriots as a wild card. The Patriots make the postseason if Baltimore loses one of its final two games. 3) If the Patriots win out and the Dolphins and Jets split, then the Patriots win the AFC East. The Jets will have to hope that they beat Miami to win that tie-breaker and, further, hope that they have a better conference record than the Baltimore Ravens in order to clinch the sixth seed. 4) If the Patriots and Ravens win out and the Dolphins and Jets split their final two games, then ...

This is the time of the year when teams need to begin to play at their best, heading into the postseason. History has shown that playing well in December can translate into playing for Championships in January. Just look at last year's Giants team that got hot in the final two weeks of the regular season and used that momentum to win four straight road games to win the Super Bowl. In other words, anything can happen. Could the same happen for the 8-5-1 Eagles? Or the 9-5 Falcons? Or the 9-5 Patriots? It sure can. 1) Pittsburgh Steelers (11-3): No team is tougher mentally and physically than the Steelers. Pittsburgh's huge comeback victory against the Ravens proved that the Steelers are the best team in the AFC. Now they go down to Tennessee and prove it for real this weekend, with home-field advantage on the line. 2) Carolina Panthers (11-3): No team is hotter than the Panthers. The Panthers have won three straight and six of seven. Early in the season, rookies DeAngelo Willi...

Even though he put in one of the dumbest play calls one can make to end a football game, Dick Jauron will be employed in 2009. The Buffalo Bills head coach, who has seen his team lose seven of its last eight games, including an inexplicable 31-27 loss to the Jets on Sunday, signed a three year extension with the ballclub late Monday afternoon. Jauron is not exactly the model of a winning coach. In four years with the Bears, he had only one winning season, 13-3 in 2005, only to see his team get upended by the Carolina Panthers in the Bears opening playoff game that year. He went 36-48 in those years with Chicago. In three years with the Bills, he has failed to live up to high expectations. The Bills showed improvement in 2007, winning seven games and looking like a team on the rise with young stars in running back Marshawn Lynch, quarterback Trent Edwards, defensive end Aaron Schobel and receiver Lee Evans. The Bills got off to a fast start in 2008, opening 5-1 before suffering a strin...

COWBOYS 20 GIANTS 8 As the song "Extreme Ways" goes in it's third stanza, "Then it fell apart, it fell apart." That might be the theme of this the 2008 New York Giants season. A season that had been full of so much promise for a repeat trip to the Super Bowl on February 1st, looks more destined for golf on Februrary 1st for many of the Giants players. At a time of the year when a team must play its best football, the Giants are not doing that at the moment. The Cowboys not only beat the Giants, they physically and psyhcologically beat them. Tony Romo, who was beat up all night long by the Giants defense, and even suffered a back injury, toughed it out and played well, throwing for 244 yards and two touchdowns. The same can't be said for Eli Manning, who was sacked eight times in the game. The once vaunted Giants offensive line was no match for the Cowboys violent pass rush which harrassed Manning all night, not allowing the Super Bowl MVP to do anything. It ...

JETS 31 BILLS 27 Don't get too excited Jet fans; your team is plain vanilla lucky to be 9-5 today. The Jets were well on their way to losing their third straight game, as well as all but flushing their playoff hopes down the toilet, when Bills coach Dick Jouran decided to make one of the dumbest play calls one can make, and J.P. Losman made one of the dumbest plays a quarterback can make. With the game all but wrapped, the Bills faced a second and five at their own 27 yard line with 2:06 to go. All Buffalo had to do was run the ball for a first down, let the clock run to 2:00 and the victory would have been theirs. Instead, Jouran decided to put in a pass play. Losman, in typical Losman fashion, botched the play when he was sacked by Jets saftey Abram Elam, causing Losman to fumble the football. Shaun Ellis picked up the loose ball and stumbled into the end zone for the game winning touchdown. It was one of the most improbable plays in NFL history; right up there with David Tyree...

After the Scott Schoeneweis-for-Jason Marquis deal fell through on Thursday, the Mets turned around and ended up trading Schoeneweis, instead, to the Arizona Diamondbacks for minor league pitcher Conor Robertson and cash . The Mets had to get rid of Schoeneweis who had become a cancer in the Mets beleaguered bullpen, blowing big games and failing to hold onto the leads. Could the Mets have gotten more for Schoeneweis? Yes, they could have had Marquis if Chicago were willing to pay some of his salary, but that did not happen. It is not known what contribution, if any, Robertson will make in 2009. It doesn't matter because he could be included in a trade package for something better.

The Yankees continue to defy economic odds as they continually throw money at starting pitching. The Yankees signed former Florida Marlin and Toronto Blue Jay A. J. Burnett to a five year $82 million contract. The Yankees hope Burnett will be more successful than another Florida Marlin, Carl Pavano, who stole millions of dollars from the Yankees after serving most of his five year contract on the disabled list. Burnett went 18-10 with a 4.07 ERA last year for Toronto, but what caught the Yankee's eye was Burnett's domination of the Bronx Bombers in 2008. He was 5-0 against the Yankees last season. The Yankees now have to hope that Andy Pettite signs a one year $10 million contract that would solidify the rotation with C.C. Sabathia and Chien Ming Wang already slotted into the top two slots.

Now that the playoff picture in the NFL is really developing, it is starting to look more likely that neither New York football team will have much of an impact when the playoffs begin. The Giants, having had their victory parade derailed last week against the Eagles, is one thing, but when it appears that the club is falling apart due to the Plaxico Burress/Antonio Pierce fiasco, it is hard to believe that this team will remain focused for another big stretch run. Add to this the fact that running back Brandon Jacobs will likely be side lined for a while because of a couple of banged up knees, and that, outside of Amani Toomer, the Giants have no real deep threat at receiver left on the team. One has to wonder when, not how, the Giants will be picked off in the playoffs. Keep in mind, during the Giants great run this season they have not seen a team from the NFC South, which is a better division than the NFC East. The Panthers have the best ground game in the league, and a receiving ...