"Hey you, get over here... stay here... please?"

It has already been a pretty big week for the New York Jets, as they’ve been making personnel changes to repair the problems that have kept them from fulfilling head coach Rex Ryan’s wrongly predicted Super Bowl victories before each of the last three seasons. The first move came with the team kindly asking offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to resign, and the second move came as the Jets hired former Miami Dolphins coach Tony Sparano to replace him. As a Dolphins fan, I can only offer a mild “Meh, we’ll see” to that latter move.

Now, though, some players are allegedly speaking out that the problem wasn’t completely in Schottenheimer’s inability to use his offensive weapons, as much as it’s the fault of weapon Numero Uno, QB Mark Sanchez.

“They don’t want to be truthful with him,” one prominent player said of the way that the organization has handled Sanchez. “They treat him like a baby instead of a man. He goes in a hole when someone tells him the truth.”

“So that should tell you everything,” the source said. “He just doesn’t have the mental toughness to be great… especially in New York.”

“They see the organization babying him,” said a Jets source. “They see him with a sense of entitlement. He’s been given all this and hasn’t done anything. They call him ‘San-chise.’ They make him the face of the organization. They gave him the captain tag. He’s not a captain. He should have never been a captain.”

(Via the New York Daily News)

Ah, my favorite type of sources – anonymous. There’s nothing quite like a player calling his teammate a coddled baby and refusing to go on record for it (also check out our cooler older brothers’ take at KSK). But the quotes are out there now for the whole world to see, and that’s all that matters. So how do these anonymous players think the team should handle it? Acquire Peyton Manning, of course.

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For the first time since 2000, the St. Louis Cardinals’ roster on the team’s official website is missing the name Albert Pujols. And while that’s simply routine procedure, it is certainly cause for panic and dismay in Baseball City, USA, with free agency well under way. Pujols is arguably the top free agent available, unless you see Prince Fielder’s youth as an advantage to Pujols’ upcoming “32nd” birthday or Jose Reyes’ value as a shortstop more appealing. And I hope that you do, as I also hope most general managers see it that way as well so it becomes that much easier for the Cardinals to re-sign Pujols and let him finish his career where he started.

Alas, with the free agency period beginning, the rumor mill cranks into full gear as well. My favorite rumor of the day is one that most people surely saw coming – Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols joining Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs.

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It’s hard being a Cleveland Indians fan in central Texas, but it has its perks; I was able to get a Cliff Lee Rangers jersey for eight dollars off the discount rack at Academy Sports. According to a report from ESPN, my next adventure in “supporting great players who play near me but left my favorite team years ago” could be New York Yankees pitcher and former Cy Young award-winning Tribesman C.C. Sabathia.

The Texas Rangers, likely to lose starter C.J. Wilson to free agency over the winter, are preparing to make a strong bid to sign CC Sabathia if the New York Yankees ace chooses to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract, a baseball source told ESPNNewYork.com.

“I hear they’re going to throw a boatload of money at him,” said the source, who requested anonymity.

I’m going to take a wild guess and say the anonymous source was “a guy on the Internet who follows baseball”. It’d be great if it was A.J. Burnett, unfolding some grand Machiavellian plot to usurp the Opening Day starter position. Regardless, the source goes on to say “no but I think he’ll stay in New York”, but I didn’t put that in the blockquote because 1) it undermines the entire point of the story, so I don’t know why ESPN chose to include it and 2) I would really like C.C. Sabathia to pitch for the Rangers. Nolan Ryan loves workhorse pitchers, and when Sabathia pitched in Milwaukee he was a feedbag away from making that figure of speech literal.

Now all we need to do is bring back Cliff Lee, get Cleveland to unload Grady Sizemore for 20 dollars and some A-leaguers (extremely likely, if you follow the Tribe) and put something racist on the hats and we’ll be all set.

North Carolina State men’s basketball coach Mark Gottfried created/contributed to some rumblings on the old Twitters last night, saying that he has heard that Texas A&M and Florida State may join the SEC. Texas Governor Rick Perry has been praying daily for the SEC to call on A&M, and that shouldn’t surprise anyone because he’s an Aggie alum. But the news about FSU is a bit of a surprise, since the ‘Noles have been ACC mainstays for 20 years. Either way, the Internet is awake so the spin machines are working.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

If the rumors about Texas A&M do pan out, though, it would send the SEC to 13 teams and a potentially swollen SEC West division. That probably would send the conference looking for a suitable SEC East counterpart to balance the sides. For that reason, most believe Florida State, a team already located in the heart of Dixie, and with a big SEC-style following, would be that 14th team.

Sucks for you, University of West Florida. But won’t somebody crap on that rumor?

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Even though the 2010-11 NBA season hasn’t ended yet, and even though the league is facing an almost certain lockout with mid-level players (even possibly LeBron James) already threatening to flee to Europe’s generous contracts and lower costs of living, the majority of the sports world wants to focus clearly on what matters most – Dwight Howard’s free agency more than 365 days away.

Of course we know that Los Angeles Lakers fans assume he’ll head west like Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Wilbon made the bold statement that the Chicago Bulls are already looking to deal for Howard because no other team has even thought of it yet, and for some reason Boston Celtics fans think that Magic GM Otis Smith would trade Howard to his current division rivals. Hey, maybe someone should ask the man himself. Again.

“I’m not trying to run behind nobody like Shaq or be behind somebody else,” Howard said, referencing Shaquille O’Neal’s decision to leave the Magic following the 1995-96 season and sign with the Los Angeles Lakers.

“I want to start my own path and I want people to follow my path and not just follow somebody else’s path. I want to have my own path, and I want to start that here in Orlando. But I can’t do it alone. Not only do I need the right teammates, but I need the city behind me. That’s the only way it’s going to get done. We can change this small city that we have — this small market that we have — and we can make it a big market.” (Orlando Sentinel)

Howard said this at a picnic he hosted to celebrate Memorial Day in Orlando, and he also invited the entire city. He could just be saying the right things to eventually save face, but I assume this means he is serious since he didn’t corral all of the people into a building and set it on fire while screaming, “SHAQ AIN’T GOT NOTHING ON ME!”

Back in September, a pair of Philadelphia lawyers registered the name “Brooklyn New Yorkers” for trademark protection, as well as a series of logos and the slogan “We Come To Play”, according to the fine people at Nets Daily. This news has the NBA world buzzing because this could be the new name and logo for the New Jersey Nets once they move to Brooklyn. It’s certainly an exciting and inspiring rumor for people who own stencil kits and rhinestone guns.

Of course, only those Philly lawyers and the Nets ownership know if this is actually the new name and logo. And maybe Kim Kardashian, because she makes Kris Humphries tell mama all the big news if he wants to keep getting the sugar. Presumably. I swear I don’t think about them having sex. Stop talking, Burnsy.

Airbrush my tall tee, Nets Daily…

There’s no indication in the US Patent and Trademark Office files that the Nets are associated with the lawyers. A spokesperson for the team declined comment Monday when asked by NetsDaily about the trademark applications. A spokesperson for Mikhail Prohorov’s [sic] Onexim Group told NetsDaily recently that the applications are “not ours”. The attorney of record on three of the five applications has not responded to a request for information.

The NBA – where mystery, intrigue and uninspired logos happen. While I’m certainly no trademark and patent lawyer (I’m just an honest neurosurgeon by day and exotic male dancer by night) I think it’s a bit premature to assume this concept would be the step forward that the Nets are looking to take. Then again, maybe Prokhorov is a stereotypical Russian and he is pushing the name because he thinks it’s American. Their mascot could be Billy Joel and the uniforms will be denim. But seriously, that logo looks like it’s from Double Dribble.

Some more evidence for your conspiracy theories after the jump…

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