49ers Lose Draft Pick

The San Francisco 49ers have been forced to give up their fifth-round pick in this years draft after it was discovered that they had been contacting Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus last season. The Niners also have to swap picks with Chicago in the third round of the draft. Since Briggs was a franchise player last year, he couldn’t leave the Bears, and the 49ers talks with Rosenhaus violated NFL policy.

But doesn’t this seem to be something that Rosenhaus would do? Who is really surprised that he is the agent involved in illegal negotiations? He and Scott Boras really need to be disciplined by their respective Leagues.

NHL Conference Standings

You know what, instead of taking up all that space, I’ll just put a link to the standings page on NHL.com:

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=page&page=StandingsPage&type=CON

That’s much better now.

Nowitzki Out Indefinitely

Dirk Nowitzki is out for an undetermined amount of time with a high ankle sprain and a mild knee sprain.

Dirk was injured in a collision with the San Antonio Spurs Ime Udoka last night after he blocked Udoka’s shot with 3:18 left in the third. The Mavs ended up losing 88-81 and dropping them to 0-8 against teams with winning records since they made the trade for Jason Kidd from New Jersey.

On a side note:

The Spurs signed Brent Barry who was traded by the Spurs to the Seattle Supersonics on February 20. Barry was released the next day and had to sit out 30 days before he could re-sign with San Antonio. This does raise some questions since the Mavs were trying to do the same thing with Jerry Stackhouse in the Kidd deal, but it was rumored the League was refusing to allow it.

Marshall Suffers Injury

Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall has received stitches and is going to be wearing a cast for two weeks. He said slipped on a McDonald’s bag at an Orlando resort and injured his arm after it went through an entertainment center.

The NFL Network has reported that he actually severed an artery, a vein and a nerve in his forearm along with tendons to five muscles. It was also said that he was wrestling with family members when the incident occurred, not due to a fall. NFLN cited no sources for their info.

Okay, the Broncos have confirmed that Marshall was wrestling with family members. Marshall said that the injury was the result of a fast-food bag, but that it was more serious than originally reported. He suffered lacerations to one artery, one vein, one nerve, two tendons and three muscles in his right arm. The team trainer said that all the damage had been repaired and a full recovery should take about three or four months.