The New York Giants beat the Carolina Panthers 24-17 on an 18 yard fumble return on the final play of their Monday night NFL pre-season scrimmage at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.

With 10 seconds left and the ball on the Panthers own 18 yard line, fourth-string quarterback Hunter Cantwell went back to pass and was hit in the arm by Giants Defensive Tackle Leger Douzable. The ball went into the air and NY Giant defensive end Tommie Hill grabbed it and ran it back for a touchdown.

Cantwell had tied the game with 57 seconds left on a five-play drive that ended with a 31-yard TD pass to Jason Cherry and a 2-point conversion pass to Andrew Davie.

The Giants got the ball back but the Panthers defense held them to a three-and-out series. Jeff Feagles then punted it away, setting up the bizarre game-ending play.

“Everybody figured on defense they would take a knee,” Douzable said. “When they snapped it, I put a move on the guard. I saw the quarterback with the ball in his hand and I got it.”

“Both sides have a lot of work, but we have time. We have three weeks to do it,” Panthers coach John Fox said.

The Giants had led almost the entire game, scoring on a 19-yard run by Ahmad Bradshaw, a 36-yard screen pass from David Carr to halfback Danny Ware and a 46-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes.

Eli Manning played only two series but was happy with the running game and defensive play of the Giants, who forced 5 Panthers turnovers.

The Carolina Panthers play their next 2009 NFL pre-season game against the Miami Dolphins on Saturday, August 22, 2009 @ 7:30 pm EST in Florida.

Eli Manning and the New York Giants head to Chicago next Saturday, where they take on the Bears in their next 2009 NFL pre-season. Gametime is 8:00 pm EST.

source: espn

Is the NFL’s game plan to use Twitter a brilliant marketing strategy or are they opening themselves up to new public relation blunders?

This is the first NFL training camp where the NFL has featured Twitter as a new marketing vehicle to expand it’s reaches and bring football fans closer to the game.

While the NFL league office recommends that clubs allow their players to Tweet, some clubs don’t agree.

Take for instance, the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos. Both teams ban their players from tweeting from training camp. Bans go against a league memo sent last week to all teams that recommended best practices regarding Twitter. NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy stated “We recommended that clubs allow limited live reporting from practices that are open to the public, subject to the guidelines set by the clubs on the issue”.

There are also concerns among the clubs that players may not what they should and should not be tweeting. Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver Chad Ochocinco announced his intention to tweet from the sidelines during games, apparently not aware of the ban on any kinds of outside communications on game day. Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe decided to show how bored he was during first day of training camp by tweeting “ZZZZZZZZZZZ” from a meeting. He later tweeted that he was referring to an “administrative” meeting, not a team meeting. And now the San Diego Chargers ordered star cornerback Antonio Cromartie to pay $2500 for using Twitter to comment on the “nasty food” in training camp.

Although the use of Twitter will undoubtedly cause some PR problems, it offers the NFL a “free” venue to market it’s product worldwide, and brings the diehard football fans even closer to the game. Using Twitter also puts the NFL on the forefront in the new media age - where information is instantaneous and just a few keystrokes away.

The NFL’s decision to adopt as it’s social media venue is a brilliant marketing decision. You can bet that controversial Tweets by NFL players will only help promote NFL football.

source: technewsworld.com

Will Michael Vick sign with an NFL team and play in the 2009 NFL season? Based on comments and positions of almost all the NFL teams, the answer is absolutely No!

But what happens in late October and early November? You know as well as I, that the NFL season can be tough on a QB. Injuries, ineffectiveness and/or lack of surrounding talent can mean the worst for any QB. Do you expect the 2009 NFL season to be any different?

The only question in my mind is when will Michael Vick be signed. Will it be by the end of the major league baseball regular season? By Halloween? How about Thanksgiving? Either way, Michael Vick will be signed and will play in the NFL in 2009 for a football team headed to the NFL playoffs.

When Vick does sign, expect that NFL owner to say all the right things; to spin the Michael Vick saga as “the comeback story of the decade”. That NFL organization will say that Michael has served his debt to society and that he deserves a second chance.

Of course, this will all be hypocrisy - done only to gain an advantage; to help them win football games.

And you can bet there will be many who protest the signing. But who are they to judge?