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Related: Gloucester High School Gloucester Catholic https://darrowphotos.com BROOKLAWN, NJ--The Brooklawn School Boys Basketball improved to 10-1 after beating visiting Merchantville. The pre-game was exciting as the 8th grade players were honored by parents, Coach's Austin Darrow and Chris Rodriguez in their last home game. The Brooklawn Bears look to finish the regular season strong before heading into the Camden County Basketball Elementary School League. More Photo's available for viewing at www.Darrowphotos.com Photo's Courtesy of Bruce Darrow Pictured below Coach's Chris Rodriguez and Austin Darrow Pictured below Aidan Mc Clintock Pictured below Jason Flynn Pictured below Coach Chris Rodriguez presents Kaden Elmore Related: Gloucester High School Gloucester Catholic https://darrowphotos.com Read more →

Remember when you were a child and you had those dreams of going to college for sports? You were certain you were playing for Coach K or Coach Wooden (depending on your age) or Nick Saban or whoever the best college program was in your sports field. The fact of the matter is that all those times in the backyard turned out to just be dreams for most of the people. Not every kid is going to college for athletics for various reasons; ability, financial restrictions, or anything else. Fortunately for me I got to live that experience of being a student-athlete. Now for the outsiders who have never played college sports, I suppose you imagine this lavish lifestyle that we live. You see these Division I athletes flaunting the freshest gear out there and their multi-million dollar weight rooms and facilities. But in a first-hand experience, I can tell... Read more →

Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet PHILADELPHIA, PA (January 18, 2018)(CNBNewsnet)--Go to Amazon right now and buy the underdog masks if you’re going to the game this Sunday. This Eagles team is a home underdog again. As if Vegas didn’t learn their lesson from last week by favoring Atlanta in the City of Brotherly Love, they’re favoring Case Keenum here as well. The Eagles and Vikings square off as the most unpredictable teams in an NFC Conference Championship game Sunday at 6:40. That’s right, even I couldn’t fathom these two teams playing each other this late in January. Yet here they are, the Vikings are here by a miracle, and the Eagles just by sheer grit and determination. This is a big one for the Vikings considering they have the chance to host a home Super Bowl. But for the Eagles, this is the chance to get back into the Super Bowl... Read more →

Both local High Schools suffered defeats on Friday evening. The Lions on Homecoming lost to Pennsville 47 - 6 with Kyle Burkhardt providing the Lions lone score. The Rams went to the shore to battle Pleasantville where the defense was not part of the game with the visiting Rams on the losing side of a 66 - 40 score. Photos courtesy of Bruce Darrow RELATED: CNBNEWS POINT OF VIEW related: ClearysNoteBook YouTube Channel CNBNEWS TIPS AND SNIPPETS Related articles Longtime Princeton schools' athletic director dies at 57 With heat in forecast, Concord changes kickoff time of homecoming football game Mother seeks answers following homecoming dress mix-up Motorcycle run aids N.J. man hurt in motorcycle crash Despite district construction, Pennsville schools will open on time Katy Perry crashed a wedding and nobody minded even a little bit North Hills hosting homecoming this weekend Pine-Richland Homecoming 2017 punctuated by gridiron win Read more →

Wantage Township, N.J. - The New Jersey State Police working with the Sussex County Prosecutor’s Office have charged Craig Lassiter, 33, of Middletown, N.Y. with multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault on a minor and other charges as the result of a Sussex County home invasion. On Monday, September 18, at 2:07 a.m., troopers from Sussex Station responded to a Wantage Township residence after the homeowner called 9-1-1 to report a burglary. The caller advised dispatchers that he believed the burglar may still be in the residence. When troopers arrived, they attempted to stop a Chevrolet Silverado with New York license plates, which was driving away from the area of the burglary. When the trooper activated his overhead lights, the driver, later identified as Craig Lassiter, swerved around the troop car, ran over a mailbox, and sped away. Troopers were able to quickly locate the vehicle, which was abandoned in... Read more →

By Austin Darrow l CNB SPORTS For every fan that is sitting back watching the MLB postseason without their team in it, I am right there with you. Some people may have seen what the Minnesota Twins did and think that their team has that same chance. Let’s not get your hopes up too high. Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, every team besides the Nationals in the NL East, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, and San Diego Padres, your time will come but maybe not as fast as the Twins. Giants fans, you might be able to see the playoffs next season, considering Madison Bumgarner was out the whole year. I am mainly going to focus on my Philadelphia Phillies, because they are not going to make that jump that fast. As a matter of fact, they managed to take a step back in the rebuild process, while the rest... Read more →

Austin Darrow The 2017 NFL Draft will now be the main focal point for the NFL season, now that the top college athletes have found their homes. Now let’s see the teams who drafted well and set themselves up for the future vs the teams who just have no idea what they’re doing. Arizona Cardinals Grade: B+ They landed LB Haason Reddick in the first round from Temple and S Budda Baker from Washington in the second round. Both those selections will bolster up that defense that already has Tyrann Mathieu. They did a good job adding depth to their O-Line, which G Dorian Johnson will most likely see early playing time. WR Chad Williams in the third round was their only head scratcher, but other than that the Cardinals have taken a step in the right direction. Atlanta Falcons Grade: B The Super Bowl runner-up had a good draft... Read more →

Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet The debate is over for the NBA MVP. Realistically it should be LeBron James, but that’s a different story, and the media and NBA have already made their minds up about the two candidates being James Harden of the Rockets and Russell Westbrook of the Thunder. Now Harden and Westbrook faced each other in the first round of the playoffs, and Harden did it with ease. You know why? Not because he is more talented, but because he includes the other four players on the court. Westbrook couldn’t define the word team if he had a dictionary in front of him. But he averages 10 assists a game so that counts for something right? He only cares until he gets that 10th assist, after that, those guys on the court will not see the ball. There’s literally videos of his teammates just blatantly letting the ball... Read more →

Austin Darrow I listened to The Herd today and Colin Cowherd came up with an interesting idea on spicing up the NBA draft. His idea was to allow these college players choose where they want to go play, as opposed to getting picked by the team. It’s interesting, it’s like a free agency for college athletes. Lonzo Ball said he wants to play for the Lakers, because his family is closer and he wants them to be able to see him play. Going number one isn’t a big deal to him. Number one overall is a great feat, but the last ten haven’t been that special. Greg Oden, Derrick Rose, and Anthony Bennett have been nobodies. Rose had a few good seasons, but that’s not a number one pick career. Andrew Wiggins and John Wall are still waiting to break out. Ben Simmons hasn’t played a game yet. So the... Read more →

Austin Darrow Tony Romo has announced his retirement and immediately signs with CBS as TV analyst. From what I’ve read, he isn’t coming back. Romo realized that Dallas doesn’t need him anymore and they have Dak Prescott as their guy for the years to come. For the people thinking he’s coming back, don’t get your hopes up. Just look at his track record, he doesn’t have a back, nor does he have a throwing shoulder. I get it, people think he had two, maybe three years left in his career. But if you look at what happened today, he retired without any doubts. I think he realized he can’t do it anymore. Romo didn’t want to play anymore, and he knew he couldn’t handle it. Now he sits in a broadcast booth and no more Phil Simms is a good thing. CBS is doing something right by getting rid of... Read more →

By Bruce Darrow Former Ram and current Cincinnati Reds Pitcher Tyler Mondile has started giving back to the school he loved. Mondile a 2016 graduate of GCHS has purchased 25 Maroon Baseball jerseys for the 2017 Varsity Baseball team. Read more →

LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers in action against the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center on April 2, 2009, in Washington, DC. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) COMMENTARY: Austin Darrow There is a resting problem in the NBA, but LeBron James is an exception in the NBA. He can take days off because he is getting ready for the playoffs. Listen, LeBron is resting up for another Finals victory. There will be times, where a child isn’t going to get to see their favorite player play. LeBron isn’t going to play every single game, he is going to give Cleveland everything he has in April, May, June and July for free agency. The man is averaging 100 games a year. As a fan of the Cavs, you want your star player to play in all 82 games at 100 percent and then give you another 20 in the playoffs. There’s... Read more →

Austin Darrow The World Baseball Classic is here to stay, and the product will continue to grow after a shocking USA victory. Let’s face it, no one saw Team USA in the semifinals, and yet they’re now champions. We didn’t really need them to win the WBC, to prove that players and fans are starting to care a little more, but it only added to the sweetness. Let’s take a look back at how much the players perspectives have changed on this tournament. The 2006 team: Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, Mark Texeira, Chase Utley are just some notable names on the roster. As usual the position players were pretty good, but the pitching was laughable and they didn’t advance past the second round. 2009 Team included: Jeter, Chipper, Roy Oswalt, Evan Longoria, Jimmy Rollins, David Wright, Ryan Braun, Dustin Pedroia, again good position players, some of... Read more →

Austin Darrow The World Baseball Classic will conclude tonight and for the first time ever, Team USA is in the finals. How many people care? Not many. The WBC is a sporting event that is magical for baseball fans, but to the rest of the sports world, the country is just half in. Meaning if the U.S. wins it, than everyone will be happy and chant USA for a day. If they lose, oh well, didn’t expect them to go this far. The biggest problem is MLB owners not wanting most players to participate. Part of the problem is the season it is in. The tournament is going on during the end of the NBA season, and the March Madness tournament. A lot of focus is on the college tournament. Most of the US games are on at 9 PM. For the average person, that means the game isn’t getting... Read more →

Primary Logo''' 1996–present (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet The Philadelphia Eagles have been the noisemakers of this offseason so far. They made a huge move to get Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith. Chance Warmack is a solid placeholder on that struggling offensive line and Nick Foles returns. The Eagles weren’t supposed to be this active in free agency. I expected them to get Jeffery at least and then do the rest on the draft board. The Eagles WR’s for opening day are Jeffery, Smith, Jordan Matthews, Dorial Green-Beckham and Nelson Agholor. I expect Beckham to be moved to clear up cap space, which would only be half a million dollars. I think the Eagles should keep stocking up on offense because their defense is almost there. Carson Wentz needs as many weapons as he can get on offense. The offense was terrible last season until Lane Johnson came... Read more →

Austin Darrow The NFL Scouting Combine kicked off today and this is where NFL teams main priority should be, not the free agent market. Teams who are looking at the QB position should be eyeing up one player and one player only; Deshaun Watson. Not DeShone Kizer or Mitch Trubisky. Watson is the best QB out of the trio being discussed for the first round. I’d put them as Watson, Trubisky and Kizer in that order. Kizer, Notre Dame, threw for 58 percent this season. 58 percent is not getting the job done in the NFL. The window to throw gets tighter in the NFL and Kizer couldn’t complete more than that with the 28th toughest schedule in the NCAA. Watson and the Clemson Tigers had the third toughest. Kizer against Stanford, who was a legitimate team, threw for 154 yards and two picks. Against USC, another legitimate team, 53... Read more →

Austin Darrow Big stars are hitting the NFL free agency market and jaws are dropping. There’s a good chance that if you’re a fan of a team who is in dire need of that player, than you’re probably screaming for them to sign him and blow all the money they have on one player. This is mainly about the Steelers locking up Antonio Brown and giving him $18.5 million per year. That’s a million dollars a week. The New England Patriots just won the Super Bowl and their entire WR core costs less than Brown’s yearly salary. As a matter of fact, Brown’s yearly salary is more than most team’s pay their entire WR core. The Steelers just overpaid their own WR for no reason. Brown is an elite WR and has proved it, but where was he against New England? WR’s aren’t that big of a factor, they can... Read more →

Austin Darrow I read an article earlier about the MLB thinking of implementing another idea into the league. They’re getting Rawlings to make tackier baseballs. This would be huge for pitchers because they would no longer have to doctor up a baseball, to get a good grip. I’m a pitcher myself, and those baseballs fresh out the box are usually slippery. I hate new baseballs and on all the teams I’ve played for, we would rub mud on the balls. I imagine every team does this to their box of game balls before the game. The MLB rubs mud on the baseballs before every game. No ball gets the same treatment of mud on each ball. Some get less than others and by that fifth box, the mud is probably negligent. Pitchers like the ball sticky, for movement and grip. In the brutal cold months for Northeast baseball players, the... Read more →

Austin Darrow NBA trade deadline frenzy is over until the offseason. Nerlens Noel was the only meaningful name to be traded, meanwhile, the Celtics had their opportunity to give the Cavs a run for their money and passed it up. Brian Colangelo is slowly killing Hinkie’s process. Jahlil Okafor was supposed to be traded away and Embiid and Noel were going to be the dominant frontcourt for Philly. Embiid and Noel worked well together on the floor compared to Embiid and Okafor. Noel will start right away for the Mavs. The Sixers got a first round pick that’s protected to the 18th pick of the draft. The Sixers will not get that pick and instead it’ll turn into two second round picks. They also received Andrew Bogut and Justin Anderson. Not sure what Colangelo’s play is here, but it isn’t something Hinkie would do. Bogut is not even going to... Read more →

Press Release | (February 16, 2017)--The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that five Minor League players have been suspended following their violations of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Free agent Minor League outfielder L.J. Hoes has received a 50-game suspension without pay following a second positive test for a drug of abuse. The suspension of Hoes will be effective immediately upon his signing with another Major League organization. Atlanta Braves Minor League infielder Gabe Howell has received a 68-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Hydrochlorothiazide, a performance-enhancing substance in violation of the Program. The suspension of Howell, who is currently on the roster of the rookie-level Danville Braves of the Appalachian League, will be effective at the start of the 2017 Appalachian League season. Arizona Diamondbacks Minor League catcher Ryan January has received a 50-game suspension without pay after testing positive for... Read more →

Austin Darrow Several teams have reported to Spring Training which means baseball is here and April is right around the corner. Baseball fans are eyeing up a season to top last years. Even though the MLB is trying to implement tons of rules, the games will still be fun to watch. Here’s my early frontrunners for the 2017 season. NL East New York Mets (90-72) Washington Nationals (88-74) Philadelphia Phillies (78-84) Miami Marlins (77-85) Atlanta Braves (69-93) NL Central Chicago Cubs (100-62) Louis Cardinals (89-73) Pittsburgh Pirates (79-85) Cincinnati Reds (74-88) Milwaukee Brewers (71-91) NL West San Francisco Giants (90-72) Los Angeles Dodgers (89-73) Colorado Rockies (78-84) Arizona Diamondbacks (75-87) San Diego Padres (66-96) AL East Boston Red Sox (93-69) New York Yankees (87-75) Baltimore Orioles (87-75) Toronto Blue Jays (85-77 Tampa Bay Rays (73-89) AL Central Cleveland Indians (95-67) Detroit Tigers (85-77) Kansas City Royals (80-82) Chicago White Sox... Read more →

Austin Darrow Let’s get one thing straight, the MLB doesn’t have a time problem, it has a pace problem. So when I see all these potential rule changes, it just makes me rip my hair out. The MLB’s games last on average 3:08 and it’s not even the longest out of the major sports. NFL and college football games last longer than baseball games. The only difference is that in the 3:08, you could watch four singles and three runs scored. I’ll be honest watching a baseball game on TV is by far the most boring thing out there. No one cares about the game time. Everyone was glued to their TV’s during the MLB playoffs, and some of those games were four hours. People didn’t want to leave their couches for Game 7 of the World Series. There have been three potential rule changes I’ve seen lately. The intentional... Read more →

Austin Darrow I’ve wanted to argue this for a while now, and the Terrell Owens snub of the Pro Football Hall of Fame has triggered me into this. The NFL and MLB Hall of Fame’s voting system are flawed. The NFL HoF voting committee consists of media members and two Hall of Famers. The MLB HoF committee consists of all media members. Do you see the issue here? The only eligible Hall of Fame voters is the two NFL Hall of Famers in the voting process. The other voters may have played the sport in high school, but now they outside of the rope. (Meaning they’ve never been inside the locker rooms) The HoF voting committee has never been behind the rope. They don’t know how the locker rooms work. Yea, sure they get inside the locker rooms, but they don’t know what actually happens in there. We only hear... Read more →

Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet The Pats-Falcons was a ridiculous end to a Super Bowl. In the last 12 months we witnessed a buzzer-beater in the NCAA championship, two 3-1 leads blown and a college football game goes down to the final second. Cavs win in the final minute of Game 7 Cubs-Indians go 10 innings in Game 7 Nova hits a game-winner Clemson beats Bama with 1 second Let’s get some things straight, the game was terrible. The first three-quarters were a typical NFL playoff game. It was a blowout. The Patriots looked defeated in the first three-quarters. They were dropping passes left and right and there defense couldn’t stop the run game. There was never a point in the game where I said it was over, because of the reasons above, but there was a time where I said New England has no confidence. For everyone who believes the... Read more →

Austin Darrow Cue Michael Scott screaming “this is happening,” because LeBron James has finally spoken out against the criticism he’s faced. You can tell he’s finally fed up with the criticism he has taken throughout his career, unfortunately for Charles Barkley, he was the one who sparked this. Barkley came out and said James isn’t a competitor, because he wanted more players on his team. Here’s what Barkley isn’t understanding; James isn’t asking for the top players, he just wants someone better than Kay Felder. James is 33 and leads the league in minutes played. He shouldn’t be doing that at his age. James isn’t asking for Russell Westbrook or James Harden, he’s asking for a Matthew Dellavedova type guy. Barkley may have been old, but he played with Olajuwon and Drexler in Houston. He can’t sit back and say James isn’t a competitor. Let’s not forget Barkley ruined his... Read more →

Austin Darrow College basketball is anything but normal, yet there’s one team who’s been shocking the nation and not in a good way. The Duke Blue Devils started as a preseason ranked No. 1 in the nation. They had a solid group of guys who could take Coach K to another national title (Grayson Allen, Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Luke Kennard). After going 12-1 before conference play, the Blue Devils are now 3-4 in the ACC. Where did it go wrong? The excuses can’t go on any further (suspensions, Coach K’s absence, and injuries). It’s time to admit the Blue Devils are not good. This team had gotten the benefit of the doubt early in the season when Giles was out with an injury. Then they had to deal with Grayson Allen’s mishaps and Amile Jefferson went down. Coach K’s absence could be a factor, but we are talking... Read more →

Austin Darrow Name me a team who had a “Big 3” and had a solid bench. I guarantee you can’t. LeBron James has come out and called out the management for not having bodies on the bench, and he is allowed to since he practically runs the team. I’m not saying he’s lying, because the Cavs bench is disastrous. Now I am a big LeBron fan, but let’s be honest here, he can’t be complaining about his teams needs when they have no money. The Cavs have the highest payroll in the league and have zero dollars of cap room. LeBron shouldn’t have taken all that money if he wanted better role players. Look back at the Miami Heat rosters with Wade, Bosh and James. The bench was awful. Why? The Heat only made enough cap space to satisfy all three players. Those three didn’t need the money that badly.... Read more →

Tom Brady takes the snap during Super Bowl XXXIX. Brady threw for 219 yards to give the Patriots their third Super Bowl victory in four years. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Related: Austin Darrow Austin Darrow Conference Championship weekend is here and two teams will advance to the final Sunday of the NFL season. The high-powered offense in Atlanta will go up against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Tom Brady looks to go to his seventh Super Bowl as he prepares to face off against the “Killer B’s”. With that, here are my “expert” opinions for this weekend’s games. Sunday, January 22nd, 3:05 PM, FOX Packers (35) vs. Falcons (37) The last time these two played, Matt Ryan lead the Falcons down the field and scored with 31 seconds left to secure a slim 33-32 win at home. Rodgers and Ryan combined for seven TD passes without an INT, so I’m expecting... Read more →

Austin Darrow The MLB Hall of Fame inductees have been announced and Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez made it. Unless you’re Jose Canseco, who questioned Bagwell entering the Hall of Fame via Twitter, you’d probably agree these three are deserving of their inductions. How Pudge Rodriguez only received 76% and Vladimir Guerrero didn’t get inducted is mind blowing. I truly believed Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds would get in. Bagwell was suspected of steroid use during his playing days. Steroids have nothing to do with the HoF voting anymore. The problem with the voting is the people who vote to put these guys in have never played the game. They are all writers who only see the inside of clubhouses when theyre admitted. The Hall of Fame committee, the people who are in charge of who goes in to the Hall of Fame have never played and don’t... Read more →

Austin Darrow On the record, I correctly predicted the final score of the Packers-Cowboys game. That is all. Steelers-Patriots, Packers-Falcons. Those are the final four teams remaining. The Steelers were the only team I predicted to lose and they didn’t look good to me at all last night. The Chiefs have a very tough defense and Pittsburgh found that out. They were great in the open field, but once they got to the red area, the Chiefs shut them down and held them to six field goals. How the Chiefs defense holds that high powered offense to six field goals, at home and still loses is absolutely mind blowing. Alex Smith and company looked good early on, but somehow went away from the game plan that was working. When they needed to move the ball down the field quickly, they took their time. And as every Philadelphia fan knows, Andy... Read more →

Austin Darrow PROCESSING… Trust the Process. Three words that have become a life quote to Philadelphians. First introduced by Sam Hinkie, former GM of the Sixers, and now being played out by rookie Joel Embiid. No one was really sure how Embiid would do this season after missing two years due to injuries. He’s the NBA Rookie of the Year as of right now. Once the Sixers get their No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons on the court with Embiid, good god, Philadelphia will erupt. As it stands right now, the Sixers will most likely land another top five pick in the draft, and on top of that, land the Lakers pick this year which will most likely be a top 10 pick. Not only will the Sixers have Embiid and Simmons on the court by the end of this season, but they’ll also be able to get the remaining... Read more →

Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet Le’Veon Bell came out and said that he’s changing the game of football like Steph courtesy Golden State Warriors Curry is with basketball. He is right about Curry, but wrong on himself. Take a seat Bell, you’re not revolutionizing the game in any way. Bell is a very good running back and I’m not here to discredit him in any way. I am here to say how crazy he is for thinking he’s revolutionizing football. He is one of the most patient runners in the game, yes, but not the first. There have been players with similar patience in the backfield, but none as extreme as Bell’s. He makes defenses miss by using that patience and being able to find the hole. But, what Curry is doing in the NBA is incredible. You walk around to any basketball game, whether it be a pick-up game or... Read more →

Austin Darrow Wild Card weekend is finally over and thank god. The games were boring and no team other than the Packers were really surprising. It’s tough to criticize the games when the Raiders and Dolphins didn’t have their starting quarterbacks. The Texans have Brock Osweiler and Matthew Stafford’s finger wasn’t healed. So four teams didn’t have a QB or he wasn’t 100% healthy. The one team I want to dial in on is the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers beat the Dolphins in a blowout if you go by the score, but remember the Dolphins were without Ryan Tannehill. Matt Moore was the starting QB for Miami. Had he not turned the ball over three times, Miami wins this game. Or if Tannehill is the QB, Miami is moving on and not Pittsburgh. The thing is, the Dolphins were never out of this game. The Steelers didn’t impress me whatsoever.... Read more →

Austin Darrow The NFL MVP race is heating up and it’s going to come down to the final game of Week 17. While we know the usual candidates (Brady, Elliott, Prescott, Carr) there’s one player who has slipped through the cracks. That player is David Johnson. Johnson is the running back for the Arizona Cardinals for the people who don’t know. Johnson has the fourth most rushing yards in the league. And tied for second most TD’s. He is leading the NFL in yards from scrimmage. If you listen to the media, they’ll only fill your brain up with Ezekiel Elliott. Elliott is a frontrunner with Tom Brady for the MVP. There’s a reason for Elliott to be the RB being talked about, because “Americas Team” is finally having a good season. They even have two young rising stars to go along with it. So the NFL loves that the... Read more →

Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey (source Pinterest) LSU’s RB Leonard Fournette (source LSU) Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet Two of the top running backs in college football have decided to skip their team's upcoming bowl games and there is nothing wrong with it. Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey has decided to skip his team's upcoming bowl game (Hyundai Sun Bowl) and begin his draft prep immediately. LSU’s RB Leonard Fournette was the first to say he was passing up in the bowl game to get ready for the draft. LSU plays in the Citrus Bowl and will play without Fournette. Fournette has said his ankle is 85-90 percent and doesn’t want to harm it anymore and possibly drop his draft stock. Fournette, just a sophomore, has battled a nagging ankle sprain and had the chance at making a legitimate Heisman run this season. Fournette missed four games, but in the seven that he... Read more →

Austin Darrow l CNBNewsnet The Dallas Cowboys are the first team to clinch a playoff spot, following Washington’s loss on Sunday. With that they are also close to clinching the NFC East. The Giants lost to the Steelers along with the Washington loss, so now all we can do is look ahead at the Cowboys playoff run. Dallas has overcome every obstacle thrown at them and passed all the tests the media and fans gave them. They took down high powered offenses like Pittsburgh and Washington, come from behind wins against the Eagles and Ravens and the defense even showed toughness in a Thursday night battle in Minnesota. The Cowboys will look to get revenge on the Giants, who handed them their only loss of the season in Week 1. It could be the last meaningful game for them till playoff time. Unlike the recent Dallas teams we are used... Read more →

Austin Darrow l CNBNewsnet Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Washington (in that order) capture the four spots for the College Football Playoff. Alabama was a lock at No. 1, but did the committee get the rest right? A lot of criticism has been thrown at the committee the past few weeks, because of how they’ve managed their rankings. We’ve seen Washington get put into the four spot for a week, before losing to the red hot USC Trojans (who will face Penn St. in the Rose Bowl). The committee has this criteria to determine who gets in and who shouldn’t, but in reality they only go off of wins and losses. Think about it, last week’s rankings went entirely by wins and losses: Alabama (12-0) Ohio St. (11-1) Clemson (11-1) Washington (11-1) Michigan (10-2) Wisconsin (10-2) Penn St. (10-2) That’s how the committee decided last week’s rankings, and they did... Read more →

Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet (PHILADELPHIA PA)(November 29, 2016)--After a 3-0 start and playoffs an actual possibility, the Philadelphia Eagles have won only two games out of their last eight. That’s not surprising to some, but it’s a little shocking at how fast they have regressed. Their loss on Monday Night Football was a crushing blow to the season and their playoff hopes. The Eagles could win out and win 5 in a row to go 10-6, but that’s very unlikely, and one to two more wins is more likely for the Eagles. Carson Wentz’s first three games were spectacular, he played like a No. 2 pick in the draft should play. Since that he hasn’t really played great, as a matter of fact he’s regressed. Wentz has shown flaws like any rookie quarterback will, but he’s been quietly terrible after his hot start. He’s thrown eight interceptions and five touchdowns... Read more →

Austin Darrow The Eagles just keep on putting more unneeded anger and pain on their fan base with every loss. Not only did the Eagles lose their fourth game out of the last five, but it was once again within a score or fewer. The Eagles went to division rival New York Giants and came out as losers, in a game that was in their hands. A couple fourth down plays Coach Pederson decided to go for, turned out to be the deciding factor of the game. At Dallas, Pederson opted to punt from 54 yards out, instead of kicking the field goal to potentially ice the game and seal a win. They ended up losing that game in overtime. Than in New York, Pederson goes for it on fourth down, not once, but twice and failed. Both failed conversions were chip shots for kicker Caleb Sturgis. What happens in... Read more →

Primary Logo''' 1996–present (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet PHILADELPHIA PA--The NFL trade deadline had plenty of rumors swirling, yet no big names were traded. Torrey Smith is still wearing a 49ers uniform, Alshon Jeffrey is still in Chicago and Brandon Marshall is still with the Jets. Worst of all Nelson Agholor is still Philadelphia’s No. 2 wide receiver. To make matters even worse Josh Huff was arrested on Tuesday. Not only did the Eagles not make any moves for those names, but Huff is looking at a suspension or even worse. So the Eagles wide receiving core has actually gotten worse. Now that there’s no more trades allowed in the league the Eagles might have to turn to free agency. The best available is James Jones, who was cut in the pre-season. Howie Roseman could try and give Reuben Randle or Chris Givens another shot. Former Eagles wide... Read more →

Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet PHILADELPHIA PA--When’s the last time the Sixers were this hyped up? The season opener is tonight and even though there’s no more Ben Simmons in the mix, the game is still more anticipated than it has been in recent memory. Also Nerlens Noel has been shelved and Jahlil Okafor is experiencing knee soreness. With that the home opener tonight is against a tough Oklahoma City Thunder, who is out to prove they don’t need Kevin Durant to succeed. There’s a ton of questions that need to be answered by the end of the season. For a 10-72 team, the first question is going to be, Will they be better than last year? People were expecting a healthy Simmons to lead this team to a 30-40 win season, but that would mean improving the win total by 20 plus games and that would be the best one... Read more →

PHILADELPHIA — The Flyers have been up and down early in this NHL season, but two things that remain consistent are their ability to generate offense in the second period and the surprising play of Matt Read With four second-period goals, including one by Read, the Flyers defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 6-3, Saturday night at the… Read more →

PHILADELPHIA — A dominant defensive front and a timely special-teams score made the difference again Sunday. But this time it was the Philadelphia Eagles, not the Vikings, who put the clamps on someone, handing the Vikings their first loss of the season. Quarterback Sam Bradford turned the ball over three times in his return to Philadelphia, … Read more →

Austin Darrow The Eagles have come back down to Earth and no one is ready to admit it. The Eagles team that outscored its opponents 92-27 and rookie quarterback Carson Wentz’s rating is now a thing of the past. That 3-0 team hasn’t shown up post bye week. Coming out of that dreadful week 4 bye, the offense has been ice cold producing just two touchdowns and scoring a total of 29 points. They averaged that in their first three games. So what has happened to this team that showed so much promise? Defenses and defensive coordinators might have finally gathered enough film on the young quarterback. Wentz has been pressured more in the last two games than he was in the first three. Some of that has to do with the suspension of Lane Johnson, who is no longer going to protect Wentz for 9 more games. The new... Read more →

Austin Darrow The end of the 2000’s was beautiful for Phillies fans. Back to back World Series appearances in 2008 and 2009, winning it in 2008. Blockbuster deals bringing big name guys to the City of Brotherly Love. The Phillies brought Cliff Lee over at the 2009 trade deadline propelling them to their second straight World Series appearance. After coming close to being back to back champs, the front office was willing to make bigger moves during the offseason. In December their wish came true. The Phillies made a blockbuster deal to bring Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay to Philly for minor league prospects. Travis d’Arnaud, Kyle Drabek and Michael Taylor were the three guys that were sent over in exchange for the future CY Young winner. Notice any of the names? You have probably heard of d’Arnaud since he is a catcher for NL East rival New York... Read more →

Austin Darrow Eagles will play the Washington Redskins this Sunday without starting right tackle Lane Johnson. His 10-game suspension was upheld and was banned from the Eagles practice facility 4 PM Tuesday. Johnson will not be eligible until Dec. 19, which is a few days before the Week 16 matchup against the New York Giants. Johnson tested positive for ingesting a banned substance back in June and the appeal was finally upheld this week. Johnson said the banned substance was part of his amino acid supplement, but they were not listed on the label. The NFL states that players are responsible for whatever they put into their bodies, knowingly or not. Rookie Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who was selected in the fifth-round, hasn’t played a regular season down yet, but will play a lot now as he was named starting right tackle. Johnson is supposed to move to left tackle whenever Jason... Read more →

Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet In a season filled with farewells of guys I’ve grown up watching, the hardest goodbyes came this year with the Phillies. We had to say goodbye to the remaining two players from the 2008 World Series team. Carlos Ruiz was traded earlier in the season. And Ryan Howard played his final game yesterday and got the respect he deserved from the fans. Howard was the last man standing from that team. Howard was much underappreciated in this town, we sometimes forget how great he was from 2005-2011 and only remember the post-Achilles Howard. In a perfect Philly sports world, we would love to see the core group go out together and play one final time together. Instead, we see, Jimmy Rollins be out of baseball for over 5 months; Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, and Cole Hamels are all getting a chance to win another World Series.... Read more →

Austin Darrow The Sixers were close to trading either Nerlens Noel or Jahlil Okafor or even both a few months ago. Draft night is when we thought we’d see the last of them in Philadelphia. These two do not fit on the same floor together, and statistics will prove that. Plus with Joel Embiid making his big debut this season, the Sixers frontcourt will be jammed up. Both players are movable, but which one should they move. It comes down to Value vs Production. Do you trade the guy who is “worse” or the one who will get you the most in return? Between these two, it’s tough because it comes down to offense vs defense. Okafor offers the offense, while Noel offers the defense. So it makes Okafor the production guy and Noel the valued guy. Okafor is a legit low post scorer and scored 10 more points than... Read more →

Austin Darrow The Phillies season is coming to a close and they are not playing as well as we’d like them to play. They only have 18 games left in the season that showed so much hope in the beginning months. They have had a pretty rough second half of the season; guys going down on injury, trades and not getting the production we had hoped we would get out of some guys. Maikel Franco was one of the bigger disappointments this season. Many people expected a lot more production out of him on a consistent basis. Franco is hitting .247 with 22 HR’s in his first full major league season. 22 HR’s isn’t bad, but when he played in half the amount of games last year and belted 14 out, you wonder where the power went. Tommy Joseph has given us a good average for a first basemen, but... Read more →

Chase Utley (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Austin Darrow | CNBNewsnet The Phillies scouting department was in a pickle in the days leading up to the 2000 MLB Draft. The Phillies held the 15th pick that year and were eyeing up two guys to use that pick on. New England high school prodigy, Rocco Baldelli, was their first choice. They saw him putting balls into the stands at The Vet and easily winning the fans hearts. How could you hate him with a name like that? Then there was a pure hitter from UCLA, Chase Utley. The scouting department had their hands tied and scouted both players extensively. The Phillies believed Baldelli would be available at No. 15, but the only other team that was more interested in him than the Phillies was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. As the Phillies went to go scout Baldelli one final time, they noticed a... Read more →