What a tumultuous off-season for the Carolina Panthers and QB Cam Newton. Sure, Brandon LaFell and Ted Ginn were marginal at best (Ginn only catching more than 35 balls in a season once in his career), but the Panthers also released long, tenured veteran WR Steve Smith who eventually went on to sign with the Baltimore Ravens. LaFell went to New England, Ginn to Arizona… This initially left Cam Newton with WRs Tavarres King and

2014 NFL Draft Prospect, OT out of Furman University, Dakota Dozier joined Chris Shanafelt on The C.S. Podcast on March 20, 2014 for an interview on his college football career, talk about the East-West Shrine Game, NFL Combine & more! Be sure to watch out for Dakota Dozier come May during the 2014 NFL Draft!

All I can say about the weekend just gone is WOW! Goals goals and goals made the weekend one of the most thrilling of the season. We saw a hat trick from Suárez, goal of the season contenders from Yaya Touré, Wayne Rooney and ….. Alexander Tettey! With Chelsea putting 6 past Arsenal, Liverpool putting six past Cardiff and Man City five past Fulham it’s safe to say it wasn’t a weekend for defence. So

The midfielder played a key role in the Spurs victory at White Hart Lane over Southampton on Sunday, winning 100% of his tackles and creating six chances. The Saints at one point lead 2-0, but two goals from Eriksen equalized the clubs going into the half. The score remained even deep into the four minutes of added time when Eriksen added an assist on the match winning goal by Gylfi Sigurdsson. The three points earned in

Eto’o got Chelsea off to a fast start and set the tone for their 6-0 rout of Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Only five minutes after kick off, Eden Hazard led a counter attack which resulted in Eto’o curling a shot off a pass from Andre Schurrle into the left corner of the net. But, only five minutes later with Chelsea already up 2-0, Eto’o was forced from the match with what appeared to be

Scoring one of two separate hat-tricks on the day, Toure was your top scoring player from Saturday’s action with a whopping 21 points. Toure got the scoring started after Negredo drew a penalty by slotting one into the lower left corner. His second came on yet another penalty kick after Fulham defender Amorebieta drew his second yellow card, both of which gave away penalty shots, and was sent off. Toure earned the hat-trick in the 65th

Man U picked up three points in the table on Saturday, knocking off West Ham United 2-0 at Boleyn Ground, in a memorable week. Earlier in the week, The Red Devils overcame an aggregate deficit to Greek powerhouse Olympiakos behind a hat-trick by Robin van Perise to advance to the Champions League quarter-finals. Not to be outdone, Rooney picked up the slack with van Persie out with a knee injury and added two goals of his

Suarez continued his domination at the top of the fantasy player points list, netting a hat-trick in Saturday’s trip to Cardiff City, earning his owners a stellar 20 points. Today’s hat-trick give Suarez four and earns him a spot on a short list of only four players to ever collect 3+ hat-tricks in one Premier League season, trailing only Alan Shearer who had five in the 1995-96 season. Suarez will add to his Matchweek 31 point total with another

Schurrle drew the start in Saturday’s match at Stamford Bridge against Arsenal and rewarded the 1.3%(per Fantasy Premier League) who selected him with at nice total of 12 points. Chelsea quickly netted their first of six goals on the day in the 5th minute when Schurrle claimed an assist on a goal by Samuel Eto’o. Only two minutes later Schurrle extended Chelsea’s lead to 2-0 with a strong finish off a nice feed from Nemanja Matic, who picked

Post Season: Linebacker Rankings   A reference point for IDP rankings at Linebacker, based on a big-play heavy (BH) scoring system.   Lavonte David, TB Karlos Dansby, MIA Justin Houston, KC Luke Kuechly, CAR Paul Posluszny, JAX Robert Mathis, IND Von Miller, DEN Kiko Alonso, BUF Vontaze Burfict, CIN Sean Lee, DAL Daryl Washington, ARI Aldon Smith, SF NaVorro Bowman, SF DeAndre Levy, DET Clay Matthews, GB Danny Trevathan, DEN Daryl Smith, BAL Bobby Wagner,

After looking at DEs last week we now look at LBs, the bread and butter of IDP Fantasy Football. LBs can be polar opposites depending on their designation. OLBs tend to score highly and sporadically whilst ILBs are more consistent with a less potential to blow up. When drafting LBs it’s important to get a mix if you want a balanced fantasy team. No use owning the best QB, RB and WR if your LBs

The Jets have signed Mike Vick to a one-year $5 million dollar deal.  This is a move to push Geno Smith to become better.  Vick is a top twenty fantasy quarterback.  We could be talking about a Vick-Decker combination down the stretch.

Matt Schaub has been traded to the Oakland Raiders for a late round pick.  They will obtain his $11 million dollar contract, so it appears they have found a new starter in the Black hole.  Sammy Watkins looks intriguing at this point pick 5 to Oakland.  Schaub is no more than a QB2 at this point.

  It’s that time of the year again —  March Madness. No, this is not a bracket, and you will find zero material that is useful for your bracket in this article (which by the way, all your brackets will be eliminated on day 1.) As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of the tournament; listening to sports talk radio has become ear piercing with all this NCAA hoops talk, making my work

van Persie performed brilliantly Wednesday night in Manchester United’s Champions League match at Old Trafford against Olympiakos, netting a hat-trick. The performance was enough to overcome an aggregate deficit and push United into the quarter-final round. Unfortunately the forward left the match early, being carried off the pitch on a stretcher after suffering a knee injury. Manager David Moyes has confirmed van Persie as out for the trip to West Ham United this weekend. van

With all this March madness going on, it’s easy to forget about daily hoops. Some people are living one breath at a time in hopes to win a billion dollars from Warren Buffet. But most people are like me, and don’t have a shot in hell already with a busted bracket. If you’re one of the lucky thousands left with a perfect bracket, than please continue to live in that dream world. I’ll see you

Gameweek 31 is upon us, and with it presents some interesting lineup decisions due to some teams playing this weekend and then again mid week. Do you take a risk and spend your transfers on some guys who’ll play twice, or do you sit tight with the roster that’s got you to this point? To quote the legendary Michael Scott: “It is what you would call a classic difficult decision.” Okay, so maybe it’s not that

Former Texan RB Ben Tate is officially a Cleveland Brown and gets an opportunity to showcase his talents, stepping out from the shadows of Arian Foster. The marriage was a perfect match: the Browns needed a running back after they smartly traded away Trent Richardson at the beginning of the season last year, they had a ton of cap room, and Tate was arguably the most talented running back to hit free agency since Michael

Virtue One: Always be Informed…and Punctual Arrive to the draft at the correct time and date.  As a commissioner, I can’t tell you how many times owners text me two minutes before the draft is ready to begin with some type of sob story that I care very little to hear about.  Excuses typically range from the I have a tummy ache all the way up to my wife is in labor.  Regardless of the

Pierre Thomas received $6.9 million spread out over the next three years.  The 29 year old is coming off a solid season with the Saints, in which he had 77 catches.  With the departure of Darren Sproles, Thomas’s veteran leadership can be used as a guide for Khiry Robinson.  I view Thomas as an RB3 or a solid flex.

2014 NFL Draft Prospect, CB out of the University of Missouri, EJ Gaines joined Chris Shanafelt on The C.S. Podcast on March 18, 2014 for an interview to talk about his college football career, his strengths as a football player & the possibilities of playing in the NFL. Be sure to watch out for EJ Gaines’ name come May during the NFL Draft!

Heading into the 2013/2014 campaign, Leighton Baines was the prized defensive player to have for fantasy lineups, and for good reason. In his 7 year career with Everton he’s racked up 19 goals, 40 assists, kept 29 clean sheets, and played 263 complete games. All the while being promoted to the senior level English national team and is included on the short list of the best Left Backs in the world. He’s been the model of consistency, and

Santana will make his spring training debut tomorrow. According to Adam Rubin, Santana will get the start against the Mets. Santana threw live batting practice to hitters yesterday and felt fine. Stamina will be something to watch. The number of pitches and innings he throws will indicate how far behind he is from the rest of the staff. Source: Adam Rubin on Twitter

Wednesday night offers another full slate of exciting NBA action. Only three of the ten games have double digit spreads, and almost half of the games tonight have totals over 210 points. Tonight’s card is a little more tricky with potential blowouts in several key games. The key to tonight is not to try to stack too many players in those potential blowout games, yet try to find the one or two players that still

Arsenal has been handed a bit of good news as Oxlade-Chamberlain has avoided a potential calf problem and seems fit to play in Matchweek 31. The injury came to light when Ox came off the pitch in the 85th minute in last weekend’s match at Tottenham. With the injuries that the club has already suffered at the midfield position, combined with Ox-Chambo’s recent form, Arsenal have avoided losing another key player. Arsenal are set for