After being upset in the 1st round of the NFL playoffs last season the Kansas City Chiefs have made some big trades this off season.
The Chiefs started making changes very quickly starting with trading Alex Smith to the Washington Redskins for cornerback Kendall Fuller and a 2018 3rd round draft pick. Looking at this deal now it’s interesting that the Chiefs acquired a cornerback in this deal and Fuller is looked upon as a starter.
Yesterday the Chiefs traded another Pro Bowler as they sent cornerback Marcus Peters to the Los Angeles Rams for what is being reported as a package of draft picks. It appears as though we might not find out the details of this traded until March 14th when the trade can become official.
While the Rams are getting a top cornerback in Peters he does come with some baggage. Just last season Peters had a meltdown after a penalty and ended up throwing the referees flag into the stands. After that he thought he had been ejected and went to the locker room, but it turned out he hadn’t been and returned to the field without all of his pads on and no socks. Kansas City did suspend Peters for a game after this incident. There where also times when Peters was seen yelling at Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Sutton on the sidelines. Peters also had an issue in college where he was kicked off the team at the University of Washington in 2014.
Even with the behavioral issues that Peters has shown, he is a fantastic talent on the field. He was a 1st round draft pick (#18 overall) by the Chiefs in the 2015 draft. Peters led the NFL with 8 interceptions and 2 returns for touchdowns as a rookie. Peters picked up 6 interceptions in 2016 and 5 last season. His 19 total interceptions lead the NFL for the three seasons he’s been in the league. Peters has made two Pro-Bowl and was voted 1st team All-Pro in 2016.
Peters is moving to defense that’s run by Wade Phillips and most experts seem to believe that Phillips will be good for the temperamental Peters. Phillips has had success with these type of emotional cornerback before. Phillips has been given credit for corralling the emotions of Aqib Talib when he was running the Denver Broncos defense. When Phillips was with the Broncos they won a Super Bowl and Talib made his first career Pro-Bowl. Will have to see how the working relationship between Peters and Phillips goes next season.
The Houston Rockets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 120-102 last night in a game that featured two teams will see in the Western Conference playoffs.
The Timberwolves may have lost more than just a game last night as All-Star guard Jimmy Butler was helped off the court with a knee injury. Butler grabbed an offensive rebound away from Nene and as he was going to go back up and try to score he went down and grabbed his right knee. The original fear was that it might be an ACL tear as Butler himself was heard saying “it’s torn” while being helped off the court. X-Rays where negative, but Butler will have an MRI today to try and see what the severity of the injury might be.
Butler is the NBA’s leader in minutes played, but that’s no surprise as Tom Thibodeau has always played Butler a lot of minutes going back to their days with the Chicago Bulls.
Butler has played in 56 of the Timberwolves 62 games this season and is averaging 22.2 points per game. Butler has always been considered an all around player as he also pitches in with 6.2 rebounds per game, 5.5 assists per game and 1.9 blocked shots per game. Butler is also a solid defensive player which is difficult to find in the NBA these days.
Butler’s injury will probably be the deciding factor on how the Timberwolves season goes. Minnesota hasn’t been to the playoffs in 11 years, but it looks as though that streak will come to and end this season as they are currently 4th in the Western Conference with a record of 36-26. While Minnesota is 10 games over .500 they are just 3 games out of the 9th spot in the Western Conference. The Timberwolves struggle mightily on offense without Butler.
If Butler was to miss the rest of the season or even say 10 to 15 games, would the Timberwolves be able to hang on to a playoff spot while he recovers?
We haven’t spent a lot of time talking about NASCAR on the Sports Time Radio podcast this year, but their season kicked off last week with the Daytona 500.
It was an exciting race that featured lots of crashes as most restrictor plate races in NASCAR do, but in the end it was Austin Dillon who found himself in victory lane when it was all said and done.
After a late race crash the Daytona 500 was headed to overtime. It appeared as though Aric Almirola was going to pick up the win, but Dillon received a big push from Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. down the backstretch on the second and final lap of overtime. As Almirola moved up the racetrack to block, but Dillon made contact with Almirola’s rear bumper turning him sideways and turning him into the wall as Dillon and Wallace went by coming out of Turn 3.
Dillon and Wallace went on to finish one, two in the race in a couple of cars with iconic numbers. Dillon drivers for his grandfather Richard Childress, piloting the #3 car made famous by the late Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wallace posted the best finish ever by an African-American driver in the Daytona 500, surpassing the 13th-place result of NASCAR Hall of Famer Wendell Scott in 1966. Wallace drives the #43 car for Richard Petty Motorsports. Of course the #43 was made famous by “The King” Richard Petty himself.
Rounding out the Top 5 at Daytona. Denny Hamlin #11 cane home 3rd with Joey Logano #22 in 4th and Chris Buescher #37 finishing 5th.
This Sunday the drivers head to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Folds of Honor Quik Trip 500. Kyle Busch will start on the pole after posting a speed of 184.652 miles per hour. Ryan Newman qualified 2nd with Kevin Harvick 3rd, Daniel Suarez 4th and Brad Keselowski round out the Top 5.
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