Let’s do some math shall we? With three games left there are still six former North Carolina football players (on five teams) still involved in the NFL playoffs. What does all that mean? Mostly that if you bleed Carolina blue like I do you will be rooting a lot more for the New England Patriots, carrying on their roster tight end Alge Crumpler and wide out Brandon Tate, who has a very nice article about him on Boston.com, than you will for the New York Jets. That you will know that from the Chicago Bears vs Seattle Seahawks game a defensive end from Chapel Hill will move on, be it Julius Peppers (Bears) or Kentwan Balmer (Seahawks). And that in the two remaining games you are going to hope that both the Pittsburgh Steelers, with long snapper Greg Warren and the Atlanta Hawks, who have offensive tackle Garret Reynolds, get to the next weekend.

If we are to believe what the Las Vegas insiders we should have plenty of Carolina blue with two weekends left of football left. Pittsburgh is favorite against Baltimore by a field goal, which is the same spread that Atlanta is favored over Green Bay. In the game where there is a former Heel on both sides it’s Chicago favorite by ten over Seattle, while in the New England/New York match up the Pats are nine points favorite.

My thoughts on the games are that the Steelers will get past the Ravens, the Hawks will go down at home to the Packers, the Bears will end the Seahawks season and the Pats will finish off the Jets once again. And if I was to be right about these picks it would mean that we would have three out of four teams left that have players that played at Carolina their college football and have a good chance to have a Heel on the Super Bowl winning team. People might not think that has is important, but to me it is very important, because it is free publicity for head coach Butch Davis while visiting potential recruits. It is a way to show what players that go to Chapel Hill might be able to do after college. It’s another business cards to prove that UNC football is not just an add-on to basketball, but its own entity on the campus.

With all that has gone on with the program this year this is also a nice change of topic, a breath of fresh air if you will and something that once again can begin to make people move on from something no one ever wanted to hear/know about. This weekend should be good for anyone that enjoys football, for us North Carolina fans it should be extra special as we keep watching some of our own playing in all four games!

(NFL) Week Two

Even if somewhat late, thanks to rea life work, here is the second part of the “Heels in the League” (NFL) for Week Two. Once again I will check out three games from this weekend and then give you the third part of this post in the late afternoon (or more probable as the Colts/Dolphins game is going on). But let’s get back to this edtion of “Heels in the League” (NFL) and check out the games…

First one with a touch of carolina blue is between the Oakland Raiders (-1) and the Kansas City Chiefs, played in front of 69,169 fans at Arrowhead Stadium. While the home team has no ex Tar Heel on their roster, the visiting Raiders do in th year vet line backer Greg Ellis. The ex Carolina LB has a heck of a game with five tackles (5 solos), two sacks (only 2 that the Raiders had in this game), two tackles for loss and a 3 QB hits. All that work paid off for Ellis and his team mates as Oakland beat Kansas City by a field goal, 13 to 10, and are now 1 and 1 on the season. Over at NFL Gridiron Gab Matt Loede says Winning Ugly – Yeah, the Raiders Do It and Don’t Mind.

Box Score — Play-By-Play — Drive Chart

San Francisco 49ers

The next game with a touch of carolina blue is one on the west coast, where the Seattle Seahawks (-1.5) traveled down south to play against the San Francisco 49′ers at Candlestick Park in front of 69,732 fans. While the team from Washington state has no ex Tar Heels, the one from California has not just one, but two, ex UNC players on their roster. The first one is 2nd year defensive end Kentwan Balmer, who had four tackles (2 solos), and a tackle for loss. While the other, 11th year vet Dre’ Bly, playing corner back and registering one tackle (1 solo) and a pass deflected. In the end it was San Francisco winning the game, defeating Seattle by the final 23 to 10 and going 2 and 0 on the season. Tyler Hutson (NFL Gridiron Gab) says the following about the game: Gore Electric in 23-10 Win Over Seattle

Box Score — Play-By-Play — Drive Chart

St. Louis Rams

Last game on this post is one that has both rosters with ex Tar Heels. At FedEx Field, it was the St. Louis Rams (+9) versus the Washington Redskins, with the stadium holding 87,780 fans. For St. Louis, who has two ex on their team, it’s fifth year center Jason Brown, a corner stone for the Rams’ offensive line along with rookie wide out Brooks Foster, who is not listed on the depth chart for now and does not see any playing time in the game. On the other side it’s the oldest ex Heel in the NFL, long snapper Ethan Albright, who has been in the league for 15 years. When it was all said and done, in what you can not call a shoot out, it was Washington squeaking it out by 2 points, beating St. Louis by the final score of 9 to 7. At NFL Gridiron Gab the title of the recap by Matt Loede is Redskins Defense Does Enough to Hold Off the Rams in a 9-7 Win.

Box Score — Play-By-Play — Drive Chart

Heels in the League (NFL)

With the National Football League opening up its season tonight it is time to check out how many ex Tar Heels will be playing in the NFL. From what I was able to gather (checking the rosters and the official web page of the Tar Heels) there are two dozens in all, of which twenty-three in rosters of 15 teams and one on the practice team of the Dallas Cowboys. That means that each week you can look forward to a very lenghty “Heels in the League” (NFL), and hopefully it will be filled with tidbits of what the ex Carolina players did along with many links to the games they were in. For now enjoy the list of the UNC players that now are at the next level, and with which team:

Garrett Reynolds, OT Atlanta

Julius Peppers, DE Carolina
Hilee Taylor, DE Carolina

Jesse Holley, WR Dallas (practice squad)
Gerald Sensabaugh, S Dallas

Vonnie Holliday, DE Denver
Richard Quinn, TE Denver

Jeff Saturday, C Indianapolis

Willie Parker, TB Pittsburgh
Jeff Reed, PK Pittsburgh
Greg Warren, DS Pittsburgh

Sam Aiken, WR New England
Brandon Tate, WR New England

Madison Hedgecock, FB NY Giants
Hakeem Nicks, WR NY Giants

Wallace Wright, WR NY Jets

Greg Ellis, LB Oakland

Kentwan Balmer, DT San Francisco
Dre’ Bly, CB San Francisco

Jason Brown, C St. Louis
Brooks Foster, WR St. Louis

Ryan Sims, DT Tampa Bay

Alge Crumpler, TE Tennessee
David Thornton, LB Tennessee

Ethan Albright, DS Washington