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Marlin Jackson Signs With Philadelphia

41 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

The Eagles announced Wednesday that they have signed free agent cornerback Marlin Jackson to a two-year contract. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.

Jackson, 26, spent his first five NFL seasons in Indianapolis. He's currently rehabbing after surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee, an injury that caused him to miss all but four games in 2009. Jackson also missed 11 games in 2008 with a torn ACL in his right knee.

When he was healthy and playing, though, Jackson made major contributions to the Colts' secondary. As a cornerback, Jackson started all 16 games for Indianapolis during the 2007 season, recording 87 tackles and an interception. He had 82 tackles the previous season despite starting just eight games.

Following the Nets: Different Points

1 hour 6 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

DALLAS -- Remember last season, when Nets point guard Devin Harris was the talk of the league? He was running circles around defenders and diving through defenses en route to a well-deserved All-Star berth for the Eastern Conference and second-place finish in the Most Improved Player voting.

Remember last season, when people were killing Mark Cuban and Dallas GM Donn Nelson for swapping Harris for Jason Kidd in Feb. of 2008? Kidd, at times, looked slow on defense and even less adroit on offense and his scoring average dipped to a career-low 9.0 points per game.

It's interesting how that's worked out lately. Now, it's Kidd and his Mavs who, with a 12-game win streak, have been the topic of conversation lately. As for Harris and his Nets, they've been talked about for all the wrong reasons -- 57 of them. When the two face off against each other tonight in Dallas, both point guards want to look ahead.

Then again, why would Kidd crane his neck and look back at the ashes of a franchise he led to two Finals earlier in the decade, especially with the Mavs' future ahead of him?

Davis Cup in World of Trouble

2 hours 1 minute ago |FanHouse Main

Roger Federer didn't play. Rafael Nadal didn't play. Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Nikolay Davydenko. The world's top tennis players didn't play Davis Cup this past weekend. Message sent?

The reasons they gave were injury, poor schedule-fit, fast-approaching old age, a need to focus on individual needs. Here's the truth:

This was a boycott. The International Tennis Federation, which oversees the Davis Cup, is in a feud with the top players, and it's not going to end well for the ITF.

The Davis Cup doesn't fit anymore. The players have a hard enough time balancing the stress on their bodies with the unrelenting modern-day demands of the tour. To add four weeks of Davis Cup on varying surfaces in all parts of the world at the worst possible times throughout the year?

No way.

The ITF knows. It has gotten the message clearly from players who have asked for adjustments. Then, the ITF sent out its own message in return:

Too bad.

So someone asked Roddick at the Australian Open whether there was danger in smirching the grand history of the Davis Cup.

Jerry Jones Is Even Scarier When He Sings

2 hours 41 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

There isn't much to add to this except that you should expect nightmares.

Via the YouTube description: "Notable North Texas athletes, mayors, and personalities offered their singing talents (or at least singing efforts!) to recreate Faith Hill's hit single 'This Kiss.' This must-see video debuted before Faith Hill's concert at Bass Hall in Fort Worth for the opening concert of the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee's Kick-off Concert Series."

Following the Nets: Price of Salt in Egypt

3 hours 26 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

It was 5 a.m. and the Middle Eastern house music had stopped. This was as good a time as any to break the bleary, pre-dawn silence.

"Do you follow the NBA," I asked the driver of the town car.

"Oh, yes, I love it," he replied, "but I like soccer a lot too."

He was a good talker, Ya-Ya, an American citizen for eight years by way of Egypt. He didn't initiate the conversation, but once it started we touched on plenty of subjects -- the World Cup, the price of salt in his home country, the NCAA tournament, but least of all, the NBA -- during the rare traffic-free, 20-minute ride from my Hoboken apartment to Newark Airport.

So why was I up at 5 in the morning darkness and in the back of town car listening to Egyptian electronica and to an explanation as to why Egyptians are willing pay twice as much for American salt as they would for an their own brands?

Joe Nathan's Replacement Could Be Found in San Diego

3 hours 45 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

It's nothing new. It seems like every year the Minnesota Twins are going into a season missing a key player and that there is no way the team will be able to overcome their loss. Be it Torii Hunter or Johan Santana, maybe even having to survive the entire month of April without Joe Mauer.

Each one of these absences or injuries is supposed to kill the Twins, yet there they are every September. At the top of the AL Central or within striking distance. So now that they're faced with the prospect of being without Joe Nathan for the entire season, there are plenty of people who are writing them off once again.

They shouldn't be.

Like Carolina, Manny Legace Is Coming on Strong

4 hours 42 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

Manny Legace has no one but himself to blame for tumbling into the NHL scrapheap before this season -- or, at least, that's what the Carolina goaltender would argue.

"It was my fault for not being special enough," Legace said of his time in St. Louis last season. "I was coming off my best season, an All-Star game (start), and it was one thing after another after that. It was a bad situation, and I made it worse by letting things bother me. It was my fault. I should have played better."

Legace is in some ways a perfect representative of Carolina's season. Somewhat forgotten, he's picked up steam, winning his past five starts in net, including a shutout over Atlanta in his most recent game. The Hurricanes, meantime, are red hot, winning 12 of their past 15.

Garciaparra Goes Home to Retire

4 hours 47 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Although it's a tough job market generally, it's apparently not so bad for All-Star shortstops.

Nomar Garciaparra, who spent most of his career with the Boston Red Sox, signed a one-day minor league contract with Boston on Wednesday, then retired, bringing to a close a 14-year career. Moments later it was announced that he's joining ESPN as a commentator.

That's two jobs in one day. Not bad. But for Garciaparra and the Red Sox, it seemed important that he retire as a member of the Boston organization, and not just because it's Boston's policy that players who have their numbers retired must have finished their career with the Red Sox.

"I always had a dream," Garciaparra said. "This is where I started. Once I got to the big leagues, playing in front of these (Red Sox) fans, I always felt that connection. I always wanted this to be the last uniform I put on."

NFL Notes: Seattle Weighing Brandon Marshall Conundrum

5 hours 41 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

When the Denver Broncos attached a first-round tender to Brandon Marshall (and not the more expensive first- and third-round compensation price), they basically were announcing to the rest of league, "Come and get him!"

Considering the number of Round 1 receivers that have been busts, a first-round draft choice to avoid investments (both organizational and financial) like David Terrell, Charles Rogers, Mike Williams, Reggie Williams, Michael Clayton and Troy Williamson seems beyond reasonable. Especially for a player with three straight 100-catch seasons -- which is nearly 100 more than the aforementioned dirty half-dozen, all high first-round selections, have combined for the last three years. The front offices of established teams that have a need at receiver and are picking late in the first round -- Cincinnati, Dallas, Baltimore or the New York Jets, for a example -- should be having the Marshall discussion.

But they're talking about some statistics that don't appear on the back of Marshall's football card, also. Namely his track record as a malcontent has been well-documented in sports sections and highlights shows. And his track record for arrests on disorderly conduct, drunken driving and domestic violence issues (with two different women, by the way) have been well documented by the authorities.

Self-Made GM Rebuilding Blue Jays

6 hours 41 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- It was February 2002, and Omar Minaya was pulling into the spring training complex in Jupiter, Fla., for the first time.

Minaya had just been hired as general manager of the Montreal Expos, who were under Major League Baseball's stewardship because MLB allowed owner Jeffrey Loria to buy the Marlins instead -- and take most of the Expos staff with him.

When Minaya pulled into the parking lot in Jupiter at 5:30 a.m., a 24-year-old was waiting for him.

"I get out of my car," Minaya recalled recently, "and he ... came up to me and told me pretty much that he would do anything to work. I looked at him -- and Alex has a great passion and a way about him. I said, 'Well, come upstairs. I don't know what job I have for you. Just come upstairs.'

Toronto Blue Jays 2010 Primer

6 hours 41 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

When the Blue Jays dealt Roy Halladay to the Phillies this winter they did more than just trade away their ace. They made a move that enabled them to stop fooling themselves that they were a player or two away from competing with the Yankees, Red Sox and even the Rays in the American League East. It was an important move, particularly because it allowed new general manager Alex Anthopoulos a clean slate of which to build.

That takes awhile, but the early results have been encouraging. He's expanded the size of the scouting staff, cleared room for young players to play every day and landed quality hauls in three trades. Kyle Drabek and Brett Wallace won't be with the team in April, but Brandon Morrow will and all three have the kind of talent that could make fans look back one day and see this offseason as the breeding ground for a great new era in Toronto baseball.

That day won't be in 2010, however. The lineup is short on production outside of Aaron Hill and Adam Lind, the rotation has more question marks than the SATs and Baltimore's ascendancy might mean a trip to fifth place is in the offing. It's going to take patience, in other words, and that might be a tough sell after so many years in the wilderness.

Ed Price: Self-Made GM Tries to Remake Jays

Clips Dump Dunleavy, Bench Davis and Hope for LeBron

15 hours 6 minutes ago |FanHouse Main

ORLANDO, Fla. -- It was another wacky day in the weird world of the Los Angeles Clippers, one of the most confounding franchises in NBA history.

The Clippers fired -- or as they said, "severed ties'' -- with general manager Mike Dunleavy, and announced it during a game in which they never were competitive. In making the announcement on the team's Web site, Clipper management also blasted Dunleavy on his way out the door.

It was a game in which point guard Baron Davis -- their highest-paid player and supposed leader -- lashed out for being benched after missing a morning practice with "a stomach ailment.''