July 29 - The Sledgehammer Calls it Quits

So the Sledgehammer – Teddy Johnson – has decided finally to call it quits. Number 52 will be sorely missed by this fan who always felt Johnson was one of the more underrated inside guys in all of football. The former Colorado Buff may not have been the most fleet afoot, and he certainly was not a great cover guy, but he was an absolute hammer against the run, particularly in short yardage. Unlike Zach Thomas, who often gets carried three yards on each of his tackles, Johnson was a “stand-up” guy who could stuff the NFL’s biggest and toughest. If you don’t believe me, just ask Jerome Bettis, who has been Johnson’s personnel bitch ever since the 1996 playoffs. For ten years, the Pats have owned the Bus and the guy holding the pink slip has always been Teddy Johnson. So most in the NFL world are now predicting gloom for the Pats now that they have lost their inside backers - Johnson and Teddy Bruschi. Are such predictions warranted? I am not going to sit here and argue that I am not slightly concerned by this development since Johnson was being counted on for at least another year of stability. But I am not raising the white flag either. The Pats perhaps saw this coming and have brought in Chad Brown and Monty Beisel to plug the inside holes. Moreover, I suspect Roman Pfeiffer will be talked out of retirement to give it a final go and there is talk that Mike Vrabel will play some inside backer this fall, leaving the outside to Willie and Rosie. With that said, I am pretty confident the Pats will find a way to replace numbers 52 and 54 on the field. But I must concede that with Johnson and Bruschi now retired, Sunday’s at Gillette will not quite be the same.

Maybe it is time for the Colorado Rockies to simply fold up shop and ride off into the sunset. I say this because just yesterday, the Rockies did a “salary dump” that netted the organization just $800,000. That is the amount the Rockies will save by sending Shawn Chacon to New York for a couple of minor league jokers. How can an organization this focused on the bottom line ever succeed in baseball? Listen, I know the Rockies were not going anywhere with Chacon, but where does it end? Is it going to be common practice for this team to sign guys for a couple million and then trade them off at the deadline every year? Is that any way to run a franchise? At this rate, why don’t the Rockies just field a team made up of players making the major league minimum. If they aren’t willing to stick with guys making a couple million dollars a year, then there is simply no way they will ever compete.

Most of you have probably never heard of Kaitlin Sandeno unless you at least casually follow women’s swimming. And that is a shame because Sandeno is simply one of the toughest “competitors” in sports today. For those not familiar with her resume, last Summer in Athens, Sandeno hooked up in the Olympic 400 IM final with Yana Klotchkova in what was an epic struggle to the wall. In that race, Sandeno came out of nowhere to lower her best time by about five seconds and give Klotchkova - one of the ten greatest female swimmers of all time - all she could handle in an event Klotchova had dominated for years. Last night, Sandeno was at it again as she anchored the U.S. 4x200 freestyle relay at the World Swimming Championships in Montreal. Heading into the final leg, Sandeno trailed Australia by about a half second. The Aussies had a competent anchor so the U.S. chances looked a bit uncertain. So what did Sandeno do? Well, she ended up swimming the third fastest 200 freestyle spilt in history and rallied to beat the Aussies by three tenths of a second. It was a big-time swim from a big time competitor who always seems to perform well in the big spot. She may not be the most talented swimmer in the World, but she is undeniably one its best “racers” If I had to compare Sandeno to anyone in sport, it would be Robert Horry. Like Horry, Sandeno may not have a gaudy resume, but when it comes to performing on the big stage, both Sandeno and Horry usually rise to the occasion.