Wow, lazy Monday morning, after a lazy weekend in sports.  I wasn't around for much of it anyway, but here's the recap:

Tiger Woods won another tournament.  Deadspin actually summed it up nicely, with an explanation of why they root/watch for Tiger Woods that sums up perfectly how I feel, too.  As always, I try to give props when someone is on point, and Deadspin is on point here.  I don't care about any other golfer, and rarely have any reason to root for them.  That makes rooting for Tiger Woods so much easier - you're rooting for history.  Like turning on the ESPN Game of the Week, and rooting for a perfect game.  You want to be able to say one day "Hey, I saw something amazing when I was younger... I saw Tiger Woods play."

 
The Yankees' sweep of the Indians not only knocked the Indians out of their way for the wild card (currently tied with the Mariners, who are Ichiro and junk, but at least they are finally making that $500 million they spent two winters ago look decent), but gave the Tigers the leg up on the Central. 

We already recapped the Jets opening preseason game against the Falcons; the only update we'll add is that RB Thomas "TJ" Jones hurt his ankle in practice, according to the Daily News.  It doesn't seem too serious, but given the lack of depth the Jets have at RB, it is not an exaggeration to call him "very important" to the Jets' season.  No doubt Mangini will go easy on him for the rest of the preseason.

Another "very important" player to the Jets' success: Pete Kendall.  Listen, we're tired of the Jets on this one.  Pete Kendall is a very important player, and was forced to take a pay cut last season because he was hurt the season before, resulting in subpar play.  Last season he anchored a line that was able to give Chad Pennington enough time to lead the Jets to 10 wins, despite having absolutely no real running back.  True football fans know how important the offensive line is to the success of an offense, both in running and passing plays.  We aren't talking big money here - Pete Kendall is getting paid $1.7 million, and wants to be bumped back up to his $2.7 million salary that he originally signed for.  Give him his money, he deserves it. 

Note: the argument against giving him the money is that "other players" (read: Chad Pennington, who took a big pay cut himself last season back when he was coming off the big shoulder surgeries) would see that as a precedent, and demand their pay cuts back.  If so, deal with it.  Players will play better and be more agreeable to pay cuts if they see the opportunity to get back with a bounce back season.    

The Jets have done an amazing job with their salary cap management.  The best example is that they signed Thomas Jones to a 5-year, 20 million contract this offseason.  However, he gets $10 million plus this season; for future salary cap purposes, his contract is very manageable.  Considering his age (he's a young 29 for a RB, but 29 none the less), this makes sense.  The Jets should be able to count on him as the #1 RB for a couple of seasons, but after that he may be too old.  If so, the Jets can cut him with a very manageable salary cap hit, and acquire a new running back to take his place.

Finally, there are two players from the NFL Draft that are not signed - one is #1 overall JaMarcus Russell.  The other is the Jets' #1 pick, Darrell Revis.  It's also annoying that the Jets are refusing to sign him because he wants a five-year contract (which every other none top-5 pick has gotten), and the Jets want him to sign a six-year contract.  Again, I understand the Jets' position.  But at what point does saving money 2012 start to diminish your team's performance in 2007?  Because if the rookie doesn't get into camp soon, and learn the plays, it may result in a few big plays going against the Jets early in the season, which is already going to be tough (the Jets first two opponents are the Pats and Ravens).  Bottom line: they need to get the rookie into camp soon. 

For the record, analyzing the Jets' early schedule, they seem in decent shape.  After the first two games (which splitting would be a huge way to start the season), the next seven games before the bye are all against beatable teams - the Dolphins, Bills (twice), Giants, Eagles, Skins.  Only the Bengals seem really tough. 

Of course, the Jets need to get off to a good start before the bye, because November and December are tough - the Steelers, the Cowboys, and the Pats are among the last seven games.  As are the Titans, who are a decent team.    

The NY Landing Strip has a nice report of what's going on at training camp.

And finally, in Premiership news: Manchester United kicked off their season with a 0-0 draw with Reading at home.  Wayne Rooney suffered a bad foot injury - he'll be out around two months due to a hairline fracture of his foot.  This may prompt the introduction of our boy Carlos Tevez into the starting lineup pretty soon.  In fact, it has been announced that he will start Wednesday's game at Portsmouth.  Without Tevez in the game, we couldn't enjoy this match very much.  Man U. couldn't score despite the help of the referees, who made Reading play almost the entire second half with 10 players.  Man U tied despite a 25-3 advantage in shots taken, and 9-2 in shots on goal.  Despite 12-3 corner kick advantage.  

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