Bibi Jones Sensation: Bagwell Comes up Short for HOF, Texans Free Agency DB/Safety, NBA Slam Dunk Particpants

The Vince Young Era in Tennessee has ended. The Titans announced Wednesday evening that they will release or trade Vince Young on February 7th. Here is the released statement from Titans owner Bud Adams:

“As you are aware, we have been engaged in a series of internal discussions over the last month about the future of our football team. We have two critical decisions to make – the direction of the coaching staff and the future at the quarterback position. They are separate issues to me and will be dealt with separately," Adams said in a statement.

“Today, I informed our general manager Mike Reinfeldt to move forward with plans to begin the process of identifying the next quarterback for our franchise. He will inform Vince Young’s agent that Vince will not be on our roster next season. I want to offer my personal thanks to Vince for all of his positive contributions to the club."

It feels like an era of Houston sports talk radio has come to a close. The Vince-Reggie-Mario debate can finally be laid to rest. It's great that Vince won a bunch of games, but it was clear to most everyone that wasn't eating Vince Young Sausage that he did not care enough to perfect his craft. His work ethic was non-existent ,and he clearly surrounded himself with nothing but enablers. Vince has incredible God given athletic ability, but was unwilling or felt it unneccessary to develop his football mind. Everything cam easy to Vince in high school and college and he clearly has never found the proper approach mentally or emotionally to deal with adversity.

He still has the gifts in him somewhere. Some other coach, some other team will think they can be the guy that pulls the potential out of Vince Young. But Vince won't be gifted a starting job at his next destination and he won't be staring at an 7 figure signing bonus either. Perhaps a team like Minnesota or Oakland that bases it's offense on a heavy ground game will take a chance on him. Vince has to rank behind at least Kyle Orton, Kevin Kolb, and Donovan McNabb in terms of available potential starting QB's.

Jeff Fisher should not be absolved of blame for the 6-10 season, but if Bud Adams was going to pick over culprit over the other, he probably made the prudent decision in picking Fisher to stay in Nashville. I wonder if all of the Oiler fans that stayed Titans fans all these years will feel like lost orphans. I could understand the affection for the team when Steve McNair and Eddie George were playing. They played for your old team in Houston. I could almost understand the continuation of your fanhood because of the local Houston kid, Vince Young. Now what? Surely you don't care about Bud Adams do you? Is Jeff Fisher your favorite coach of all time? Might this finally be the impetus to make you a Texans fan (as bad as they are)? Let us hear from you! mattandadam@sports790.com

Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar are the newest electees to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Jeff Bagwell got 41% of the vote in his 1st appearence on the ballot. Here are the full results of the vote.

2011 Hall of Fame voting

Name Votes Pct.

Roberto Alomar 523 90.0%

Bert Blyleven 463 79.7%

Barry Larkin 361 62.1%

Jack Morris 311 53.5%

Lee Smith 263 45.3%

Jeff Bagwell 242 41.7%

Tim Raines 218 37.5%

Edgar Martinez 191 32.9%

Alan Trammell 141 24.3%

Larry Walker 118 20.3%

Mark McGwire 115 19.8%

Fred McGriff 104 17.9%

Dave Parker 89 15.3%

Don Mattingly 79 13.6%

Dale Murphy 73 12.6%

Rafael Palmeiro 64 11.0%

Juan Gonzalez 30 5.2%

Harold Baines 28 4.8%

John Franco 27 4.6%

Kevin Brown 12 2.1%

Tino Martinez 6 1.0%

Marquis Grissom 4 0.7%

Al Leiter 4 0.7%

John Olerud 4 0.7%

B.J. Surhoff 2 0.3%

Bret Boone 1 0.2%

Benito Santiago 1 0.2%

Carlos Baerga 0 0.0%

Lenny Harris 0 0.0%

Bobby Higginson 0 0.0%

Charles Johnson 0 0.0%

Raul Mondesi 0 0.0%

Kirk Rueter 0 0.0%

Note: 436 votes (75%) required for enshrinement. Induction July 24, 2011 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Texans Free Agent Targets CB/Safety

CB:

Champ Bailey: (Broncos) A future Hall of Famer who obviously was on the Broncos while Kubiak was the OC. Bailey is a leader and still has enough speed to own one half of the field. Bailey is older but I would imagine he would relish a chance to win somewhere else besides Denver which appears to be a rebuilding situation. Of course you could say the Texans are rebuilding too off of a 6-10 campaign.

Brent Grimes: (Falcons) In his 1st year as a full time starter Grimes has been solid intercepting five balls and defensing 23 others. The Falcons can probably afford to put the franchise tag on Grimes, but chances are he will be looking for a similar contract that Dunte Robinson received from the team.

Jonathan Joseph: (Bengals) The Bengals are awfully cheap. Even thought he might rate as their top CB, Cincy is liable to look for a cheaper option. Joseph was banged up a good chunk of the season. but still would be a clear upgrade for Houston.

Ike Taylor: (Steelers)
I really can't see the Steelers spending the cash to keep a CB. They seem to value this position less than any on their defense. Taylor is not super fast, but he doesn't need to be with Pittsburgh's rush. Taylor would not be my 1st choice, but he can help.

Safety:

Roman Harper/Darren Sharper: (Saints) One of the underrated stars at his postion, Harper simply put makes plays against the run and the pass. He and Darren Sharper have been the huge catalysts for the Saints makeover on defense. Coincidentally they are both free agents this year. Harper is younger so he might be signed first. Hopefully the Texans will drop their rediculous policy of not signing anyone over the age of 30.

Eric Weddle: (Chargers) Weddle was a major contributor as a rookie when Wade Phillips was his DC. He can actually play corner or safety which makes him even more valuable. With the Chargers likely needing to use their franchise tag on WR Vincent Jackson, Weddle could be their for the taking.

The NBA announced its 4 participants for this year's Slam Dunk Contest at NBA All Star Weekend.

Blake Griffin.