COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

Well Met fans, I hate to break this to ya, but Bobby V. is not coming back to Queens in 2010. No, the Wilpons didn't make another public announcement endorsing GM Omar Minaya nor manager Jerry Manuel. No. Valentine has signed with another team ... ESPN. Valentine will be an analyst on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" show during the MLB postseason and could see a larger role with the network come 2010, according to a news wire story from Bleacher Report.com. This should end any speculation that Valentine will return to manage in the major leagues this season, unless someone blows him away with an offer he can't refuse.

For those who have been wondering where David Clowney, the Jets speedy receiver who has yet to show off his skills in a regular season game has disappeared to, take a gander at Rex Ryan's dog house. After the Jets beat the Patriots 16-9, Clowney wrote on his Twitter page how disappointed he was that he didn't get to play much in the game: “1 play in the 1st Half, 4 plays in the 2nd half … A bit disappointed about my playing time but very happy and satisfied about the win,” Clowney wrote eight days ago. Ryan got wind of that post and held Clowney on the inactive list for the Tennessee game. Ryan doesn't like it when players are more concerned about their personal stats, rather than the concept of team first. “I was upset with him; yep,” Ryan said Monday, “for a couple of reasons. One of them is you’ll hear things if a guy’s unhappy or whatever. I’m not a big Twitter guy, but you hear different things. To me, this is about our team and understanding this is about our team. N...

Well it appears that the Miami Dolphins now know why the Jets got rid of Chad Pennington last year. The injury prone QB, has suffered yet another season ending injury, this one a torn capsule in his throwing shoulder that will require surgery, and another year on the pine for Pennington. In Sunday's 23-13 loss to San Diego, Pennington was dragged backwards on a sack and thrown on his face, when he apparently jammed, or tore something in his arm. He walked slowly off the field, clutching his right arm in his left hand. Miami medical staff had to remove Pennington's pads for him and ice down his shoulder before half time. He never returned to the game. This marks the fourth time in Pennington's star crossed career that he will be lost for the season due to injury. While with the Jets, Pennington broke his hand in 2003, and suffered numerous shoulder injuries in 2004 and 2005. In 2007, some thought that Pennington was injured when Eric Mangini benched him in favor of Kellen C...

YANKEES 4 RED SOX 2 The inevitable is now reality. The New York Yankees are champions of the American League Eastern Division. It has been an incredible season for the Bronx Bombers. After a slow start to the season, the Yankees took off in May and never came down, claiming baseball's best regular season record at 100-56, and cruising right past the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays. Throughout the year, the Yankees have entertained their fans with one comeback victory after another, 14 home comeback victories this year for the Bombers coming into their weekend series with the Sox, which led all of baseball. Unlike years past, where the Yankees dugout and clubhouse has been one of the more strict in the league, the players were loose all season long, from A.J. Burnett's traditional pies-in-the-face for the player who brought the Yankees back in any of their victories during the year, to Nick Swisher's electric personality, and Derek Jeter's breaking of Lou Gehrig's ...

GIANTS 24 BUCCANEERS 0 The Giants huffed and they puffed, and they blew the Buccaneers pirate ship down this afternoon in Tampa Bay. The Giants defense dominated the Buccaneers even without the services of Justin Tuck and Kenny Phillips. Big Blue surrendered only five Buc first downs, and 86 total yards of offense. The Buccaneers leading passer? Chris Johnson, who completed four of 10 passes for 36 yards. Offensivlely, the Giants merely dominated. They held the ball for 43:38, as Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs ran all over the Buccaneers porous defense. Jacobs opened the scoring with a six yard touchdown to give the Giants a 7-0 lead in the first. He ran for 92 yards and showed no signs that his recent back injury was a problem. As for Bradshaw, he went nuts on the Bucs. Bradshaw had 104 yards on 14 carries, averaging 7.4 yards per carry. Eli Manning had a nice afternoon as well, throwing for 161 yards and two TD's. In the second quarter, Manning hit Steve Smith from four yards...

JETS 24 TITANS 17 This one wasn't pretty, but the Jets take it. Unlike the previous two weekends, the Jets 46 defense had no answer for the Titans running back tandem of LenDale White and Chris Johnson, as the duo rushed for 127 yards on the once vaunted Jets D. Meanwhile, the Jet offense, which saw early success in the first quarter with two Mark Sanchez touchdowns (one pass, one rushing), fell silent in the middle two quarters, as the Titans D, consistently harassed the young quaterback for three sacks and forced him to make some untimely throws throughout the afternoon. With Tennessee up 17-14, it appeared that the Jets good luck was beginning to thin. Then a fumble changed it all. On a Jets punt back to Tennessee, returner Ryan Mouton fumbled the ball on the Tennessee 20, and it was recovered by special teams ace and former Patriot Larry Izzo to give the Jets some much need momentum. With new life, Sanchez hit Jerricho Cotchery in the flat for a 15 yard gain to move the ball t...

It appears that the injury bug that plagued the Giants throughout training camp is starting to rear its ugly head once again. This time it will take away the season of one of Big Blue's most promising young stars: Kenny Phillips. After recording two interceptions in Sunday's 33-31 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, Phillips was diagnosed with patellafemoral arthritis in his knee, the same knee that had been bothering him all summer. Story. Phillips is now the third Giants to hit the DL for the season. Jay Alford injured his knee is a pre-season loss to the Chicago Bears, while Andre Brown ruptured his Achillies tendon in training camp. The Giants are also playing without Aaron Ross, who suffered a horrifying hamstring injury late in camp, and Kevin Dockery is also nursing a hamstring injury. However, both Ross and Dockery are expected back in camp this week. The Giants will have to rely on C.C. Brown, and Aaron Rouse (not Ross), claimed off waivers from the Green Bay Packers t...

GIANTS 33 COWBOYS 31 Now that's a great way to open up a new stadium. With the opening of the new Cowboys Stadium as the backdrop for Sunday night's NFC East clash, the Giants came right out and smacked the Boys in the mouth, then silenced an NFL record of over 100,000 people in attendance by the score of 33-31. Eli Manning lit up the Cowboy's defense, completing 25 of 38 passes for 330 yards and two touchdowns. The Giants offensive line, which gave up eight sacks to Dallas late last season, didn't allow a single Cowboy to touch Manning since the Super Bowl MVP appeared to enjoy ample time to make big throws for Big Blue all night long. Manning had to be great tonight because this game was all about points. With the Cowboys up 7-3, the Giants D stepped up and made a big play. Bruce Johnson stepped in front of a Tony Romo pass, picked it off and dashed into the end zone for a 10-7 lead. But that was not quite enough to hold down the Cowboys, for Dallas drove the ball 73...

JETS 16 PATRIOTS 9 It is not often that a head coach of a NFL franchise takes the time during his busy 18 hour a day schedule to record a message encouraging season ticket holders to come to the game locked and loaded, pumped up and ready to go.That is what Rex Ryan did last Monday, and the coach who has found a way to connect with 53 men in a locker room, has found a way to connect with over 80,000 plus angry as hell Jet fans. Giants Stadium? Not today . Jet fans were so loud from the start to finish of Sundays 16-9 Jets win over the despised New England Patriots, that the game was more reminisent of soccer game in Europe. Fans were jumping up and down in their seats, causing the joint to shake, rattle and roll at several points during the game. Nobody sat down in this game; fans stood, cheering on Rex Ryan's 46 D to smack around Tom Brady and the vaunted Patriots offense. Defensively, the Jets didn't get a whole heck of lot of pressure on Brady;they never sacked him and onl...

Here is one out of the "duh" category. After toying with the obvious since mid-May, the Mets will finally admit to themselves that Carlos Deglado will not play another game this season for New York. In fact, he may never wear a Mets jersey again in his career. Delgado had been trying all summer long to return from hip surgery, but the first baseman just can't seem to get over the pain. According to the New York Post , Delgado still feels discomfort in his hip when performing running drills. "I think time is running out for him," Manuel said before last night's 6-5 loss to the Nationals. "I think he's had a couple of setbacks in the time that we were gone that could possibly prevent him from playing for us this season." With 14 games left in the Mets forgettable 2009 season, it makes little sense for the Mets to have Delgado in the lineup; in fact, it made little sense to bring him back when the ship started to sink back in June. The Mets will h...

The Jets will have to open their wallets for Brett Favre one more time. The Jets have to pay up to $125,000 in fines for not listing Favre on the injury report when he suffered a torn bicep tendon late last season. The Jets franchise will have to pay $75,000, while General Manager Mike Tannenbaum and former coach Eric Mangini will have to pay $25,000 each. The Jets were caught in the situation when Favre revealed that the team insisted on playing him even with a torn bicep tendon. It was later, revealed that the Jets kept Favre off the injury report during this time, leading to an investigation and the subsequent fines. " I believe in following the rules, whether it's on the field of play or it's our policies," Goodell said. "We believe those rules should be followed, and if clubs don't, or other personnel don't, we will take disciplinary action. This is an important rule to the integrity of the game. All clubs are following the rule. And if someone viol...

GIANTS 23 REDSKINS 17 It wasn't pretty, but, for the second straight opener, the Giants held off the Redskins to kick off their season on the right foot. In so doing, the Giants answered some huge questions about their receiving corps. Early in this game the Giants showed the world that their passing attack is indeed fine, as Eli Manning shook off the pre-season rust with his receiving corps to complete 69 percent of his passes (20 for 29) for 256 yards and a touchdown. On the Giants opening drive, Manning and Company put away any doubt that this group lacked continuity when he completed a 25 yard bomb to Mario Manningham to move the Giants to the Redskins 36 yard line. Manning hit Kevin Boss for 11 more to move the ball to the 20, and Brandon Jacobs for eight more to get the ball to the 12. The Giants had to settle for a field goal, but the drive set a precedent for the rest of the evening. In the second quarter with the ball on the Skins 30 yard line, Manning hit Manningham again...

JETS 24, TEXANS 7 So much for the old formulation that a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback equals a slow start. The Jets not only beat the Houston Texans, they blew the doors off and sent a message to the NFL that the New York Jets are here to win this season. Mark Sanchez took a huge step in his development as the starting quarterback of the team. He was sharp all afternoon, avoiding every blitz the Texans threw at him by completing lasers to his receivers who were in tight coverage for most of the day. Sanchez was in complete command of his offense, looking more like an experienced veteran instead of a 22-year-old kid making his first NFL start. You have to give a lot of credit to the Jets offensive line. They keep Sanchez clean, not allowing the young gun to sacked at all in this game. At times Sanchez was given a lot of time to make his throws, including a beautiful 30 yard touchdown to Chansi Stucky on a go-route to give the Jets a 10-0 lead. When pressured, Sanchez usua...

A day after former Jets quarterback Brett Favre accused former coach Eric Mangini and Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum of forcing him to play with a torn bicep in his right arm, the Jets GM came out and admitted that he did make a mistake in handling the injury by not listing Favre as probable with a bicep injury. It is protocol in the NFL for all players who are dinged up, even with the slightest of injuries, to be listed on the injury report. The Jets never listed Favre as injured late in the season, the time many believe Favre was injured. "I'll take responsibility for that," Tannenbaum said. "As the GM of this team, I should've handled that differently and listed him on the report. We didn't just because he wasn't getting treatment every day and we knew he was going to play. But, looking back on it now, I should've listed him as probable, and we didn't, and I'll take responsibility for that." The Jets could face up to $25,000 fines per week fo...

We knew long before Derek Jeter stepped to the plate for his first at-bat tonight against the Tampa Bay Rays that he was one of the greatest players to ever wear the pinstripes. Now, the man who has been the main cog in the success of the franchise over the last 13 years is now etched, permanently, into the golden record book of Yankees history. Jeter needed three hits to tie Lou Gehrig for the most hits in franchise history. After struggling to get a hit the past couple of nights, Jeter got three. Typical of Jeter, a classic pull hitter, he lined a ground ball right under the glove of a diving Chris Richard to tie the record. Yankee Stadium erupted with an October fervor, applauding one of the classiest players to play the game in a long time. As always, Jeter's parents were in attendance to witness his record-setting night. They had stayed here in New York all week waiting for their son to capture the spotlight. After the record was tied, coaches and players from both dugouts app...

What a fall from grace for David Tyree. A year and a half ago, David Tyree was the king of the world, having made one of the most improbable catches in NFL history when he leaped up and trapped a desperation throw from Eli Manning on his helmet to give the New York Giants a first down on a drive that resulted in the game winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLII. Now Tyree has joined the long list of those looking for work. Tyree was cut Saturday morning by the team he won a ring for, the Giants. The G-Men had too many receivers on the team with Hakeem Nicks, Sinorace Moss, Dominik Hixon and Steve Smith on the roster. Hard to believe, considering that Tyree is better than Moss and Smith combined, but that is the decision Tom Coughlin felt inclined to make. Tyree didn't play at all in 2008-2009, and before his "helmet catch" in the Super Bowl, he had only four catches in the 2007-2008 season. It is not known where Tyree may end up, but, look for teams like the Jets, who are d...

There have been several contradictory reports over the last twelve hours about the Jets "desire" to acquire Broncos diva-receiver Brandon Marshall. Moreover, it has been well publicized in Denver that Marshall hates new head coach Josh McDaniels, and desperately wants out of the program. Marshall has been seen slapping balls away from himself during practice, as well as kicking the ball away whenever he makes a catch. His behavior was so bad that the Broncos suspended him until September 5 for conduct detrimental to the team. Since that time, the Jets have been the only team reportedly interested in Marshall. There were reports that the Jets called the Broncos to inquire about the receiver, which was immediately followed by reports that the Broncos were thinking of filing tampering charges against the Jets. Should we be shocked that there is any coincidence that McDaniels, a former Patriots assistant, was thinking of filing such charges because of his long standing hatred of ...